Linger in this Otherworld
by whimsycality
Summary: A young group of teens in Roswell, some alien and some not, have no idea how many changes the next year has in store for them, or how many secrets of the past will be revealed for all of them as they band together against outside forces. All UC, AU.
1. Chapter One: The First Domino

**Title:** Linger in this Otherworld; Book Three in the Chains of Fate Series  
><strong>Spoilers:<strong> All of Roswell is up for grabs though it seriously differs from canon**  
>Category:<strong> UC, AU, Ensemble Fic**  
>Rating:<strong> Teen  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Polar, Max (and Maria) Friendly, Other pairings will be revealed as the story progresses**  
>Summary:<strong> A young group of teens in Roswell, some alien and some not, have no idea how many changes the next year has in store for them, or how many secrets of the past will be revealed for both the hybrids, and the humans, as they band together against outside forces that threaten everything they hold dear. - Alternate Universe Season One, continuation of Edge of Shadows and Brink of Dreams.**  
>Warning:<strong> This story will depict occasional scenes of violence and those of a sexual nature as well the occasion use of foul language, none should be too graphic and if needed, more specific warnings will be posted above the specific chapters.**  
>Disclaimer:<strong> The characters of Roswell belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

**A/N:** To reiterate what I've stated in the other fics, this is an Ensemble fic and the goal is to have fans of have any characters or pairings be able to read it without fear. Also I am like ridiculously giddy to be posting this because I have wanted to redo season one FOREVER and I am so excited to finally be doing it. And on that note, several pieces of dialogue in these first few chapters were taken from the Pilot and succeeding episodes, with alterations and additions of course, but those recognizable pieces do not belong to me. Same goes for the lyrics which are from the song 'Lightning Strikes Twice' by Iron Maiden

**Betas:** Ashita is my brilliant and amazing beta, all praise to her for putting up with me and writing her own fantastic fics, and Kathy has also helped me with the series so they both deserve massive thanks. Oh and the lovely author and beta Keri Anne is responsible for the first scene in this chapter that is from Alex's point of view so all hail her genius!

* * *

><p><em>I feel a breeze on my face in expectance<em>

_Not very long before the storm reaches here_

_Off in the distance a lightning is flashing again_

_Feel something strong as the power draws near_

_Is it the rolling of thunder that scares you?_

_Is it the crashing of clouds that hold fear?_

_But all I know as I sit in a corner alone_

_It takes me back to my childhood again_

_And as I wait and look for an answer_

_To all the things going round in my head_

_I ask myself, "Could it be a disaster and when?"_

_It's maybe threatening to happen again_

_As the ominous light draws near_

_There's a lone dog howls in the park_

_All the people hurry inside_

_As a lightning flash lights the dark_

_The storm is nearly here_

_Only God will know_

_You're sitting alone, you watch_

_As the wind is blowing treetops_

_And the swaying rustling of leaves_

_Plenty of time to perceive_

_As you wait for rain to fall_

_Only God knows_

_The whole sky glows_

_Maybe lightning strikes twice  
><em>

Previously on Walk the Edge of Shadows…

_Michael watched Liz whisper and giggle with her sister and their friend Maria after scamming a customer, and his gut clenched when he realized that Max was staring at her too, the other boy completely oblivious to his companion's shared fascination for the brunette._

_He dragged his eyes away when he heard the arguing in the corner, the sounds of two men yelling grating on his nerves as something he had not had to listen to since they left the trailer park. When the gun came out he froze, time slowing down as they struggled, and then a bullet flew through the air to hit the tender flesh of Liz Parker's stomach. _

_His heart stopped. _

_Frantic thoughts of healing, of calling 911, of doing anything but sitting there, unable to move flashed through his mind, and then Max leapt to his feet, ready to charge in like a white knight on his damn stallion._

_Michael grabbed his arm but let go a moment later, not because of Max's frantic words or the passion in his eyes, but because he could not bear the thought of Liz Parker not being there for him to watch._

_Max placed his hand on her stomach and Michael held back the customers, unable to look behind him for fear that his brother succeeded and fear that he did not. Everything was going to change.  
><em>

Previously on Tread the Brink of Dreams…

_Tess had been watching the way Max and Michael watched her sister, and trying to decide for herself if she wanted to encourage her to go after either of them, or find a way to make both of them leave her sister alone. The one thing holding her back was the fear that it was her own selfish desire for Liz's current boyfriend prompting her to think about telling Liz to consider Michael. _

_Sometimes she wished she did not have a conscience._

_Thoughts of her and her sister's love life had been the only things keeping her sane for the past month, the only thing keeping her from watching everyone in town like she was one of the paranoid conspiracy theorists who haunted Roswell. She had never really felt alone, because even though they were not exactly the same, Liz _was_ her sister, and she had never felt like an outsider because of that. But suddenly knowing that there were others out there, others like her; it was both exhilarating and terrifying because above all it meant that pretending to be normal might not be an option much longer._

_But the thoughts of her and her sister's love life, and their alien fears, were wiped away when the argument by the door got so loud that no one could ignore it anymore, and a new kind of dread tightened her gut. _

_All of a sudden there was a gun waving, the fluorescent lights glinting off the cold metal, and then there was a brief flash, so small that if she had been entirely human she probably would not have noticed it, and then Liz was falling, and there was red seeping through the front of her uniform, and oh-my-god her sister had been shot, and she had to get to her, she had to heal her like she had all those years ago._

_But Maria was clutching her hysterically, and there were people watching, and she was trying to get to Liz, but Maria just would not stop screaming, and then Max, tall quiet Max, was bending over Liz and tearing her uniform open and there was blood, so much blood, and he put his hand over the bullet hole and he told Liz to look at him and she did. _

_Then his hand was glowing and she could feel the connection between them through her own connection with her sister, and what did it mean, was he one of the others? Had Max lived in one of those pods? Was he like her? How could they not have sensed it before?_

_Maria stopped screaming, and Liz was okay, and Max was breaking a bottle of ketchup, and suddenly she could move again. She shoved Maria out of the way and knelt next to her sister to hide her from view, waving a hand over her uniform so that the buttons were done up and the blood underneath the ketchup was gone. Max saw her do it with wide eyes, and then he ran out of the restaurant and she cursed under her breath. Way to look suspicious idiot. _

_She helped Liz stand up and oh-so-casually moved back to the wall behind her as people rushed up to see if her sister was okay._

_As soon as Liz started telling her ketchup bottle story with a perfect embarrassed blush and giggle, her sister was such a good liar, she waved her hand behind her back over the right side of the doorframe leading to the kitchens, and suddenly there was a bullet hole with bullet, readymade for the sheriff to find. _

_Liz pulled away from the crowd and grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes, and they both knew; everything had changed.  
><em>

_**Chapter One: The First Domino**_

_September 18th, 1999_

"Lizzy. Oh my God!" Jeff exclaimed, his voice shaking and his face pale as he rushed up to his daughter, all too vivid images of his wife's broken and bloodstained body flashing through his mind. He could not survive that devastation again; he would not survive losing one of his daughters, not now, when he had just barely recovered from Nancy's loss.

Liz just smiled calmly up at him, hiding her own shock and turmoil, and squeezed his arm reassuringly, pulling away the towel over her midsection to reveal the large swirl of ketchup staining the front of her uniform. "No dad, I'm fine. See? I just knocked over the ketchup. I'm okay, I promise."

Her father visibly slumped with relief, the blood slowly returning to his face as he pulled her in for a desperate, breath-stealing hug, ignoring the way ketchup smeared over his own shirt, too caught up in his need to physically reassure himself that his Lizzy was truly okay. After a long moment he finally released her, cheeks damp, before turning to inspect Tess to ensure that she too, was okay, his eyes still a little wild with fear and remembered pain.

Liz exchanged a worried glance with her sister over his shoulder, hoping that this almost disaster didn't push their fragile father back over the edge, then took a deep, steadying breath, and turned to face the sheriff, praying that she could prevent an even worse disaster.

"You okay, Miss Parker?" he asked in a voice made soothing through years of experience, but that set her hackles up all the same.

She nodded and curved her lips into a smile while butterflies flapped up a hurricane in her stomach, forcing her to fight the urge to be sick all over his cowboy boots. Max healing her was the closest they had ever come to exposure, the first time their abilities had been used in such a public place, and any hint of the unusual was dangerous in a town like theirs. The man standing before her might be dating Maria's mother, and might be her boyfriend's father, but that did not make him any less terrifying or any less capable of destroying her and her sister's lives.

"I'm fine, Sheriff, just a little shaken up," she managed to say after swallowing hard, proud of the fact that her voice was even and sincere. After a brief, heart-stopping moment, he nodded and turned to face his Deputy, who had just finished getting Maria's babbled statement, the blonde moving to Liz's side where she clutched at Liz's hand and sniffed her cypress oil in a vain, but familiar attempt to soothe her jangled nerves. For a brief second, Liz considered grabbing the bottle and downing it to see if it would kill the storm in her stomach, but sanity intruded and instead she turned her attention back to the two men, tightly squeezing Maria's hand for comfort, both her friend's and her own.

"Sheriff, the suspects ran out just after the incident occurred. Couple of outsiders. No apparent robbery, no injuries other than the girl that fell." Here the deputy nodded at Liz before continuing. "Just seems like an argument that got out of hand."

Before the sheriff could reply, the deputy snapped at the two tourists nosing around behind the counter. "Hey, I told you two to stay outta there." He shook his head disgustedly and turned back to Valenti. "Couple of tourists in town for the Crash."

"Uh Sheriff?" the male tourist said hesitantly as he and the woman came back into the front of the restaurant, Liz barely managing to stop herself from glaring openly at them. "Hi, um, I'm sorry; I really need to talk to you. I think something happened here."

"What do you think happened?" the sheriff asked politely, his face serious though something in his eyes reminded Liz of Kyle in one of his more humorous moods, lightening her panic ever so slightly.

"Well, the gunman was standing over there, right?" the man said as he pointed, "And the shot was fired in this direction. And we searched, and well we did find the bullet." He looked disappointed when he said that and Liz felt a triumphant surge through her bond with Tess. "But it's right behind where the ketchup bottle broke on the floor, almost like it would have had to pass through the girl here to hit the wall."

The sheriff glanced at a clearly unharmed Liz for a moment before turning a skeptical look back on the man, obviously waiting for further proof. "Yeah, and uh Sheriff, before it happened, the girl gave me this." He handed the sheriff the alien photo Liz used to boost her tips and the brunette blushed as her sister and Maria giggled.

Valenti smiled at them with clear amusement as he handed the photo to Jeff, who took one glance before giving his daughters and Maria a stern look. "What have I told you girls about showing the photos to the tourists?"

Liz flushed again, half in embarrassment and half in dread as the other tourist, the woman, stepped forward and pointed to the table where Max and Michael had been sitting, causing the sheriff's gaze to drift over the empty Tabasco bottles as a knot solidified in Liz's chest, panic back in full force. "There were two kids sitting over there when it happened, two boys about her age. And then one of them went up to her and –"

"It was just a boy from school, making sure I was okay," Liz interrupted her, clinging to her calm, waitress smile, and praying that it didn't falter. She would have denied knowing them at all, but with Maria still hanging on her arm, she didn't trust her friend not to react to that blatant lie. Not to mention how easily it could be disproved in a town as small as theirs.

"Then why did they rush out of here so fast?" the male tourist asked suspiciously and Liz shrugged, darting a glance at the sheriff to judge his level of interest in what the two were saying.

"Maybe they had somewhere to be."

The sheriff's brow was furrowed in thought, but after a moment he nodded agreeably. "I think we're all done here. We'll take the bullet in for evidence in case we find a match to their gun in the system, but we won't take up any more of your time today Jeff."

Liz fiercely resisted the urge to let her relief show on her face at that declaration, but was unable to repress a flicker of fear, shared with Tess, at just what tests on the bullet might reveal. They didn't exactly have a lot of experience in creating such things, and had no true idea of how realistic the bit of metal was.

But, there was nothing they could do about it, so they watched nervously, but silently, as the deputy pried it out of the wall and dropped it into a small plastic bag before taking his leave with the sheriff, the two men escorting the tourists out the door as they went so that the Parker's would have, in the sheriff's words, 'some peace and quiet to clean the place up.'

Liz helped mop up the rest of the broken glass and ketchup, before grabbing her sister's arm and making an excuse to Maria and her father about needing to take a shower and then dragging Tess up the stairs. They had some answers to find because right then, everything they thought they knew had gone out the window, and the stakes had just been raised to frightening new heights.

Staring at each other in their bedroom, they could not help but think that the world had seemed a safer place when they thought they were alone.

_Across Town…  
><em>

Alex looked around the Evans kitchen and shook his head. He had been jostled aside as the argument between Isabel, Max, and Michael, became more intense. Raelyn was trying to play peacemaker, mediator, but she was failing. It was a good thing that Mr. and Mrs. Evans were not home, because nobody was exactly watching what they were saying.

Michael's hands started to glow and Rae reached for his arm to try and calm him, help him regain his control.

For the first time, it hit Alex that he was standing in a room with four very powerful, very dangerous, aliens. And none of them were in a good mood. They were his friends, but if one of them were to lose control, would they be able to stop themselves from hurting him? He had no way of defending himself. He was suddenly very aware of his humanity.

"How could you do it, Max? How could you betray us like that?" Isabel was shaking with fear and rage, but she also looked close to tears.

Max grabbed Isabel's shoulders, trying to get her to listen to him. "She won't tell, Izzy, Liz won't tell."

"How can you be so sure, Maxwell?" Michael's voice was a low growl; Raelyn's grip on his arm seemingly the only thing keeping him in control.

Max released Isabel and turned to look at Michael. "Because I saw… Michael, when I healed her I got flashes, I saw things…And Tess, she did something."

"You got flashes?" Michael's voice became even more quiet, more dangerous, but Max did not seem to understand the danger in his brother's eyes.

Max nodded, obviously relieved that somebody was starting to listen to him. "I think her sister is different too. Michael, Izzy, I think Tess is like us."

"If you are like me, then why didn't Liz or I feel you? Why no connection?"

Tess's soft voice caused everybody in the room to spin around and face the two girls standing just inside the kitchen door.

"We did knock," Liz stated quietly. But there was something challenging and defiant in the action.

In another situation, it might have looked funny. Tess stood on the right, Liz on the left, their hands clasped together. The open kitchen door showed the basketball court behind them, a light breeze stirring the branches of trees in the distance. They were light and dark. Blonde and brunette, short curly hair and long straight tresses. Blue eyes and brown. Tess's hand looked creamy and pale beside the slight coffee undertone of Liz's skin.

Both girls had changed into jeans; Liz's were slightly darker than Tess's. Tess wore a light blue v-neck top with darker blue diagonal stripes. Liz's t-shirt was a solid orange. Both girls were short, petite, unimposing. Tess was ever so slightly taller than Liz. But between the two of them was an undeniable aura of strength.

It was Max who broke the silence. "Liz…"

He started to move towards Liz but Tess brought her hand up in what could only be called a protective gesture. A wall of green energy seemed to flow out of her hand, shielding the two girls from Max's approach.

"I asked you a question. If you're like me then why didn't Liz or I feel you?"

Max took a step backwards. Michael stepped to just behind his right shoulder, Raelyn clinging to his hand in much the same way that Tess and Liz were clinging to each other. Isabel gasped and reached out to the kitchen counter for support.

Alex's jaw dropped in shock. Tess was an alien; Tess was like Michael! But did that mean that Liz was like Rae? He shook his head and stepped forward from his spot by the kitchen table. It was only then that he realized that he had been half-hidden from Liz and Tess's sight by the four aliens in the middle of the kitchen as their eyes widened in shock to match his own.

"Okay," he breathed out in a voice much calmer than he felt. "I've had enough alien bullshit for one day." He walked up towards Tess and Liz; Tess caught his eye for a second and then lowered the shield.

"Max, we all understand why you did what you did, but you should have been more careful. Michael, you would have healed her if you could, so stop being a hypocrite. Isabel, yes, you feel hurt, upset and betrayed. You have every right to feel that way. I know you're afraid, but Tess just showed you that she and Liz can't hand you over to be anybody's lab rat without putting themselves at risk too. Raelyn, just keep Michael calm."

"Tess, I wish you'd told me but I guess I understand why you didn't. Liz," he was standing right in front of Liz by then and his gaze softened. "I'm glad you're okay." He pulled Liz into a quick hug before turning to face the rest of the room. "I'm going home. I'll talk to you all tomorrow."

With that he slipped past Liz and walked out the door, shutting it behind him and leaving six stunned and not quite human teenagers in his wake.

Later he wondered where he had gotten the courage to speak as he had, and felt a little faint at just how wrong the confrontation could have gone.

x

Still standing in the Evans' kitchen, the six teens stared at each other, none of them sure how to break the lengthening silence until finally Liz shifted her feet and spoke, not willing to prolong the tension anymore, her words dropping into the quiet like stones on a still pond. "When did you come out of the pods?"

Like stones, the question was meant to shock, to provoke ripples of reaction, and it worked as Michael's hands began to glow again and all four visibly tensed further, so tightly strung that she briefly considered snapping her fingers just to see what would happen. Shock did strange things to her usually rational thought process.

It had been a calculated risk, admitting their knowledge like that, but she did not think that they would have been so afraid of exposure if they knew where they came from, and some gut instinct was telling her that they were the three who had awakened before Tess, though who was who since there were four teenagers in front of her, was another question.

And given that they had grown up with the four of them, and that Max had tried to save her life, even without knowing who she and her sister really were, well that earned them some trust, not a lot, but some.

After a moment of heavy silence and building energy that made Liz's skin crawl with hundreds of invisible ants, Tess rolled her eyes and took matters into her own hands, asking sarcastically "Don't you remember me? I was in the pod you left behind."

All of them looked, if possible, even more shocked, and suddenly Liz laughed, a note of hysteria tainting her voice. The sheer ridiculousness of the situation and their expressions, combined with her delayed reaction to her own almost death, and the discovery of the aliens they had been half-heartedly searching for all summer, was just a little too much, and all of that stress had to find an outlet.

"Great, we finally find some other aliens and it turns out they're whack jobs," Michael stated dryly after another tense moment, his fists relaxing as the glow faded, and Tess snorted while rubbing soothing circles on her sister's back.

"At least we bathe, and use hair care products," she replied pointedly as she stared challengingly back at him, channeling her inner Maria and earning herself a smirk from Michael while Isabel reflexively reached a hand up to touch her perfect blond hair.

"I don't remember a fourth pod," Max said quietly, dispelling the brief moment of humor as his gaze darted between the too-calm blonde and her sister, whose giggles had faded away and was now cradling her stomach with her arms as she watched them warily.

Tess shrugged. "I didn't remember any of you until, well, until recently. But more importantly, I know you saw things in my sister's head, so you're really not in a position to demand more proof," she finished in a biting tone as she wrapped an arm around Liz's waist. She shook her head as most of her anger drained away, replaced by exhaustion and still lingering fear. "My sister was just shot, and questioned by the sheriff. Thanks for that by the way, you really need to work on that hiding in plain sight thing. So, I'm going to try and calm her and our father down while you four figure out if you want to trust us."

She turned and led Liz towards the door before casting one more glance over her shoulder, lips twisting into a dark parody of a smile. "You know where to find us."

Then they left and for the second time that afternoon, a stunned silence fell over the kitchen as Michael, Raelyn, Isabel, and Max, all stared at each other and wondered what the hell they were supposed to do after that.

None of them could have guessed that they had been attending classes with anyone whose secrets were as big as theirs, and none of them knew what to do with that information now that it was too late to pretend nothing had changed.

Their private little world had just gotten a lot bigger, and even Michael, who wanted answers the most, wasn't sure they were ready to deal with the fallout from the day's events. Raelyn buried her head in his chest and Isabel collapsed onto a stool as the two boys stared silently at each other; everything was different now, _everything_.

_September 19th, 1999_

The girls had not been able to talk about what happened after leaving the Evans' house the evening before. Instead they had come home and spent hours with their father, as he once again reassured himself that they were alive and okay; he had even closed the restaurant for the rest of the day. When he finally let them go to bed, they were both exhausted, and had fallen asleep the moment their heads touched their pillows.

They had both been scheduled to work the next morning, but had been banned from the café and instructed to rest and focus on homework, preventing any attempt to try and contact the others again, assuming they were ready or willing to given how effectively Tess had left the ball in their court.

By the time they crawled out of bed and finished their small amount of schoolwork, each avoiding talking all the while as they each dealt with their own emotions and turmoil, it was early afternoon, and the two girls moved to the balcony, enjoying the brief shade provided by the position of the sun, and the respite from their father's anxious hovering.

Liz gently stroked the skin of her stomach where the handprint had been before she erased it, her eyes staring into the past at a dark, bloodstained road, while her sister watched worriedly from her place by the window. "Stop staring at me Tess, I'm fine. And, even if Max hadn't been there, I would have been fine because you _would _have saved me."

She turned so her eyes met her sister's and smiled. "Really, we should be stressing more over what the heck we're going to tell Maria, because with Alex knowing, and apparently four other people, it's not really fair or practical to keep her out of the loop any longer."

Tess paled as she dropped into the chair beside Liz. "Crap, I hadn't even thought about that. I know she's going to have questions after we rushed off yesterday and she might have seen something…oh this is not going to be pretty." She looked at her sister a little desperately. "Think we could get Alex to tell her?" She asked, only half kidding.

Liz just raised an eyebrow. "I think Alex is probably a little irritated with us too. I wonder how he found out about the others? Do you think he and Raelyn started dating and he didn't tell us?"

Her sister shook her head. "I thought about that, but you know Alex, he's a sweetheart, there's no way he would have left that kitchen without giving her a hug or a kiss or something."

"So basically he is now hung up on an alien, and not just a girl, whose brother can blow him up if he feels like it, poor Alex," Liz said with a chuckle as her head fell back on the lawn chair. "Although I don't think Raelyn is actually an alien; I think she might be like me."

"Are you sure? She could be Vilandra and Michael could be Zan just as easily as it could be Isabel and Max, or she could be another alien who just wasn't in one of those four pods."

Liz frowned, then shrugged and shook her head. "I don't think so, she feels like me if that makes sense, but then again we had no idea that any of them were different before yesterday, so who am I to talk?" Her corresponding laugh had a hint of her earlier hysteria and she visibly shook herself before turning a questioning gaze on Tess.

"Have you thought about what it might mean for you? One of them is Zan, I'm sure of it. I didn't have a chance to see their auras, but we will know as soon as they get up the nerve to confront us."

Tess hesitated, tugging on one of her curls. "Not really, whatever happened in the past – which is assuming we're not crazy and didn't hallucinate all of those dreams –" Liz shot her a disbelieving look at that comment, but she persisted. "Either way, it was in the past, and I'm not going to dictate my life now, by whatever happened then."

Her sister smiled and reached over to take her hand. "I'm with you; let's just hope they feel the same way."

They were quiet for a moment; both watching the stars and still holding hands, just enjoying the calm that they were sure would not last. _'Is this really happening? The dreams, the shooting, the others? Or are we locked up somewhere beating our heads against a padded wall?' _Tess asked silently, feeling her own hysteria bubble up now that the need to keep her sister and father calm had passed.

_'I don't know,' _Liz said after a moment, gently squeezing her hand. _'It does seem a little out there doesn't it?'_

It was Tess's turn to shoot her sister a disbelieving look. _'A little out there? Try I would believe flying pigs crashed a saucer back in '47 over this.'_

Liz giggled once before sobering again, her own fear and worry trickling through the bond. _'I don't think we're insane, but I must admit, I kind of wish we were. I got shot yesterday and that's not even close to being the most important thing that happened. I can't even think about the fact that I could have died, because we have bigger worries. I think that qualifies for insanity.'_

'_You almost dying is all I _can _think about,' _Tess admitted, her mental tone bordering on anguish as her grip on her sister tightened. _'You almost died and we haven't even come across our enemies yet, if they even exist. It wasn't alien, it wasn't important; it was a stupid argument. Hasn't our family had enough bad luck?'_

'_You would think so wouldn't you? _The brunette replied with a sigh, feeling a double wave of sadness from herself, and her sister, as they contemplated the last time chance had ripped through their lives. After a long, painful moment, she shoved her turbulent emotions down, swung her legs over the edge of the lawn chair so she was sitting straight up, and faced her sister, stating firmly. _'Instead of focusing on the bad luck of getting shot, we should focus on the good luck that I got healed, and we found the others because of it.'_

'_I'm still not sure that finding the others constitutes good luck,' _her sister responded dryly as she too sat up, her lips twitching into a faint smile though her blue eyes remained serious. _'What do we know about them really? I mean, we've gone to school with them sure, but none of us are friends, they don't really have any friends except each other, excluding Alex for Raelyn and a few cheerleaders for Isabel.'_

'_You didn't want to make friends either at first,' _Liz reminded Tess, her eyes twinkling. _'I distinctly remember having to force you to talk to Maria, and even Alex at first.'_

Tess stuck her tongue out at her sister, but then nodded reluctantly. _'I guess you have a point. If you hadn't had friends before I came along, or if I had ended up in an orphanage, I could have ended up like them.'_

They both fell silent after that, knowing how glad they both were that they had become sisters, that Tess had not ended up alone and too afraid to let anyone in, and that chance was not always bad. "Why do you think we didn't sense them?" the blonde finally asked, her voice soft and husky with exhaustion.

"I think we did. We both felt the changes when we got back to Roswell, and the dreams didn't start until we were in school with them." Liz shrugged. "But, we didn't know there were more pods until summer, and out of all of the students our age at both schools, how could we have known who to look at? Or even if they still lived here?"

"You and your logic," Tess stated, half teasingly and half disgustedly. "You have an answer for everything, don't you?"

Liz just laughed. "I wish Tess, I wish." Smile fading, she stood and pulled her sister to her feet. "I have a feeling that we're going to have a lot more questions than answers for a while yet."

_Michael and Raelyn's Apartment…  
><em>

Michael could feel his sister's gaze boring into his skull and stared pointedly at the TV, doing his level best to ignore her presence. It did not deter her, and after several more minutes, he finally snapped, turning a glare towards where she sat on the other end of the couch. "What?"

She was completely unfazed by his tone, or forbidding expression, and just smiled sweetly at him. "You need to talk about it."

"I'm fine, I don't need to talk," he ground out, and felt his frustration grow when she shook her head and gave him a pointed look of her own. He held her gaze for a moment before sighing and letting his head fall back against the couch. "Did you have to be a mind reader?"

Despite his irritation, weary affection was obvious in his voice, and Lyn grinned, reaching out to take his hand. "It's your fault I'm a mind reader, don't forget."

He shot her another annoyed glare, but then grudgingly smiled and let her scoot closer, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "I'm just worried that Max being stupid is going to get us all killed, or worse."

She was silent for a moment, resting her head against his shoulder, before asking in a curious tone. "What if Liz had died? Or even just gone to the hospital?" He opened his mouth to protest and she shushed him with a shake of her head. "I don't mean that you don't want her alive and well, I _know _you do," she stated, glancing slyly up at him as he flushed uncomfortably.

"I meant that if she had died, or even just had to be operated on, given that she's different like me, who's to say that her body wouldn't have made someone curious? Maybe Max saving her was less of a risk than leaving her alone." She shrugged. "And besides, if he hadn't, I'm betting that Tess would have, and then we never would have known that they were like us."

Michael turned her words over in his mind, temporarily ignoring his gut emotional response, and realized with a sudden lurch that their deaths could be more incriminating than their lives, something he'd considered before, but never quite this seriously. What would happen if one of them died and someone did an autopsy before the others could recover the body? Or they were in an accident and unconscious and sent to the hospital?

"You're too smart for your own good, you know that?" he stated, tone both serious and teasing as he tousled her curls.

She pinched his side and he flinched as she giggled. "You're the one who reads Joyce, so you have no ground to stand on Mr. Pot."

"I have plenty of ground Miss Kettle, plenty," he replied with a straight face, and she giggled again, the sound lightening his mood, though he took care not to show it.

"Well, now that you've stopped brooding, I'm going to make dinner. How does spaghetti sound?" she asked as she pulled away from him and stood, propping her hands on her hips and staring down at him with a smug smile as he shot her an irritated glance, once again reminded that he couldn't hide his true emotional state from her.

"It sounds fine, now stop blocking the game."

She rolled her eyes and stayed in front of the TV for several more seconds, only moving when he reached for her and she danced out of reach.

"Brat," he muttered, and her laugh floated back to him from the kitchen.

"Love you too!"

He grunted, but didn't reply, glad that she couldn't see the smile spreading across his face, even if she could probably feel it. She was a brat, but she was his brat, and he would make sure that she stayed safe, no matter what happened because of the day's events.

There would be no deaths anytime soon if he could prevent it, and he only hoped that the repercussions of the shooting and Max's actions would not cost them all more than they were willing to pay.


	2. Chapter Two: Aftershocks

**A/N:** The lyrics are from the song 'Decode' by Paramore.

* * *

><p><em>How did we get here?<br>When I used to know you so well  
>How did we get here?<br>Well, I think I know  
>The truth is hiding in your eyes<em>  
><em>And it's hanging on your tongue<em>  
><em>Just boiling in my blood,<em>  
><em>But you think that I can't see<em>  
><em>What kind of man that you are<em>  
><em>If you're a man at all<em>

_**Chapter Two: Aftershocks**_

_September 20th, 1999_

"Okay, we've spent the last week talking about genus and phylum, and now we're going to get a little more specific and talk about the differences between species. For today's experiment you'll be working in teams of two."

As Mrs. Hardy finished speaking, Max walked in and took a seat beside Liz, shooting her a look that Liz could not quite read: a mixture of curiosity, mistrust, and something else that she couldn't identify.

"Mr. Evans, so nice of you to join us," Mrs. Hardy said dryly, sparing Max a warning glance before resuming her lecture. "Okay, everyone on the right, prepare a slide with the vegetable sampling. Everyone on the left, take a toothpick and get a sample from your cheek."

Liz saw the fear creeping into Max's eyes and shook her head slightly. She knew old habits died hard, but if they were going to be stuck with each other, then she and Tess were going to have to get the others to calm down, or they would end up blowing their cover making some panicked mistake.

"Don't worry Max; we can skip that part of the lab," she said under her breath just as his hand started to rise in the air, and then resisted the urge to chuckle when he shot her a surprised and grateful look. She felt one of her sister's eye rolls coming on, but repressed it, and raised one eyebrow instead, speaking in a low tone that would not carry past the two of them. "We're in the same boat, remember?" He nodded, still looking unsure, and she added in a matter of fact tone, "Besides, if you have enough control of your abilities to manipulate matter to heal me, then altering a few of your cheek cells to appear normal should be an easy task."

The surprise in his eyes deepened into shock, and she realized he had never even considered the idea. "How have you avoided detection this long, if you haven't learned a simple trick like that?" she asked with genuine surprise of her own, barely remembering to keep her tone quiet.

He shrugged and his lips quirked into a half smile as he reached for a slide to cover their conversation. "We don't get sick and we avoid any situations like this one, I guess it never came up."

Liz shook her head again as she flicked on the microscope light, still not quite able to believe it, given that his devotion to science seemed almost as strong as hers, not to mention their need for concealment. She and Tess had experimented as soon as they were old enough to understand the risks of what they were, and had barely been able to stop shaking when they realized how lucky they were that their pediatrician, Dr. Schmidt, hadn't noticed anything odd before then, finding themselves very grateful that he was older and still wary of modern medical technology. "We need to talk Max, all of us."

He nodded his agreement and they fell silent, not sure where their conversation could, or should, go from there. Working in sync on the lab as they always had, they notated the appropriate spaces on their lab forms and moved around each other with the comfortable ease of long term partners, something Liz found reassuring, a glimpse of normality in their abnormal lives.

After almost fifteen minutes, Max broke the silence, startling her despite the constant chatter of their classmates. "I still can't believe that you know; I thought about telling you so many times."

She looked up at him sharply, unable to hide her shock or stop herself from asking. "Why? I don't want you to take this the wrong way Max, because I will never be able to thank you enough for what you did, for what you risked, but we're just lab partners, we don't even hang out outside of class."

"It was you," he stated simply, that unidentifiable emotion back in his eyes. Only this time she recognized it, and she realized with a sinking feeling that Maria had been right, that Max Evans did indeed have a crush on her, at the least, and that knowing the truth about her had most likely deepened those feelings rather than the opposite.

She did not know what to say to him, was not even sure what she wanted to say, so she remained silent and turned back to their work, trying to ignore the flicker of hurt in his eyes as she sorted through her own emotions. Max was attractive, sweet, caring, and of course there was the plus that he knew her secret, was a part of her secret. But other than a few faint flutters at the beginning of freshman year, she had never felt any real draw to him.

A pair of burning caramel eyes and a husky, sarcastic voice flashed through her mind and she felt a guilty flush of desire. Now Michael on the other hand…she sighed and shook her head, ignoring the sideways glances Max continued to shoot her. She had Kyle, she reminded herself firmly, and although she was not sure how long that relationship was going to last, given the guilt she felt over lying to him about everything, he deserved better than being dumped for someone else. He had made her smile and laugh and been nothing but charming (if occasionally boring) while they dated that summer.

In all reality, she should have stuck to her guns and not said yes when he asked her out in the first place, since romance was not something she had time for, especially now, regardless of who that romance was with. Now if only her hormones would listen to reason.

The bell rang, freeing her from her circling thoughts, and the two of them entered the hallway after packing up their bags, walking silently side by side towards the quad as they both had lunch right after Biology. They did not get very far before Michael and Tess appeared on the other end of the hall, also walking side by side, although they looked decidedly less comfortable with that fact.

Liz processed the intense expressions on their faces, and quickly tilting her head, gave a sigh of grateful relief as she spotted the door to the apparently empty band room. Grabbing Max's arm, she gestured to the other two, and pulled him inside. A confrontation would be safer in private.

Unfortunately, when Liz and Max came through the door, Tess and Michael close behind, she realized that they were not in fact, alone. There was her charming boyfriend, casually tapping out a beat on one of the drums. Liz exchanged a frantic look with her sister before smiling at Kyle as he looked up and noticed her. "Kyle!"

"Hey," he replied with a grin, setting down the drumstick and walking towards her.

"Hey," she said back, her brain refusing to cooperate by producing a less inane response.

He came to a stop in front of them and nodded at Tess and Michael where they still stood by the door, before turning towards Max and stating, far too cheerfully for Liz's state of mind, "Hey Max."

"Hey," Max replied quietly and Liz fought down a hysterical giggle at the fourth use of the word in less than a minute. Max's voice was calm, but Liz could feel the discomfort radiating from him in waves, and knew she needed to get Kyle to leave, quickly.

"So, did you get my message?" he asked before she could speak, the glint of concern in his blue eyes making her feel guilty all over again.

"Oh yes, I did. I was just a little…" she trailed off, not sure how to categorize the roller coaster of her life since the shooting two days before. Her impressive vocabulary was just not up to that particular task.

"Shaken up?" Kyle provided with a gentle smile and she nodded, smiling back and wishing that his smile made her tingle half as much as the fierce gaze of a certain alien she could feel burning into her back. "I know, my dad told me about the gun going off. You okay?"

She nodded again, tamping down on her guilt and ignoring the palpable frustration emanating from her three companions. "Oh yes, I am. It was just loud and then it was over."

"So you guys are?" he asked after a beat, glancing between the four of them curiously.

"Um," Liz said, scrambling for a believable answer, "We're looking for a place to study…for our Bio project."

"Okay. Biology. I was leaving anyway."

"Great, that's good," Liz said awkwardly, still attempting for a normal smile and knowing she was failing miserably.

"Oh! I've got my costume for the Crash this Friday, it's great." Kyle suddenly added with a big grin and she felt Max shift restlessly beside her.

"Kyle that's great, and you can tell me all about it later, but we've got to study. I'm sorry."

"Oh right," he said, deflating slightly. "See you guys later." Then he finally left, with a last glance in her direction that sent her stomach into uncomfortable somersaults. Why couldn't she bring herself to care more about him? The door closed behind him and she sighed with relief, her eyelids sliding shut for a moment as she tried to gather herself, until Michael spoke and interrupted her brief moment of peace with a pointed, sarcastic barb.

"So, you're dating the sheriff's son. That's smart."

Her eyes snapped back open and she spun in place, glaring at him as all her frustration and unease came boiling out in response to his verbal jab. "Who I choose to date is _none _of your business."

He just smirked while Max looked on in surprise, his face showing confusion at their obvious tension, too much for the circumstances. Tess rolled her eyes and strolled forward, linking her arm through Liz's to present a united front against the two males. "I'm pretty sure we have more important things to discuss than my sister's love life."

Michael grunted, but refrained from making another comment, and they all just stared at each other for a moment, the reality of the situation sinking in as their high school concerns faded away.

Max could not help but feel disappointed. Telling Liz his secret, healing her, it was not supposed to go like this. He had always looked and stayed away because it wasn't safe, but now that she knew, and did not just know, but was a part of his secret in a way that had nothing to do with his actions, well, he had expected something different, something more, to come of that revelation.

"We do need to talk, but school probably isn't the best place for it, and Isabel will kill me if we do this without her. We should all meet as a group somewhere," he said quietly after the silence stretched on longer than he could handle.

If he could not have what he wanted, at least not right then, well they could still be friends, and to do that, they needed to find out everything they knew. Because it seemed to him that the two girls in front of him knew a lot more than he and his family did.

The girls both nodded and after another silent moment, Michael reached up to scratch his eyebrow, breaking the awkward quiet with a sarcastic twisting of his lips. "Well I'll just 'volunteer' my place then, since I'm the only one without interfering parents."

Liz rolled her eyes at his tone, but nodded her agreement after glancing at Tess. "Tess and I both work tonight, but we're off at seven, so we can be there by eight."

"Okay," Max said, when Michael did not speak again. "I guess we'll see you there."

The girls nodded again, their movements as perfectly in tune as if they were truly twins rather than actually unrelated, and then they all turned to go. Liz stopped Max just before the door, all too aware of Tess and Michael's eyes on them, but not willing to leave him with nothing after what he had revealed in Biology, even if it wouldn't be what he clearly wanted. "I just wanted to say thank you again, Max. You didn't know that I wouldn't tell, and you tried to save me anyways, that was very brave of you."

He smiled at her, the most genuine smile she had seen out of him all day, possibly ever. "Any time Liz, any time."

She chuckled as Tess tugged on her arm, anxious to get to lunch before classes started again. "Hopefully I won't need to take you up on that offer."

He grinned in response, and then watched wistfully as she and Tess disappeared down the hallway, soon lost in the milling mass of students.

Michael shook his head in disgust at the lovelorn look on his friend's face, ignoring an unwelcome stab of jealousy as he clapped Max on the back, startling the other boy out of his haze. "Come on, the girls are waiting for us."

He had known that Max saving Liz's life would only increase his infatuation with her, and he had hoped that Liz would not return those feelings, either out of some sense of misguided hero worship, or genuine affection, especially once they learned that she too was different, and already knew that Earth was not only humans inhabited earth.

It seemed he had been wrong to have such hope.

x

"Well it says right here that shots were fired, but no one was injured," Alex said calmly, gesturing to the paper and trying to keep his own knowledge of the truth from showing in his eyes. Maria would pounce on the least bit of doubt if he let her.

"Then where's Liz? I mean why is she avoiding me?" Maria exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "Okay, first of all, Liz is never late right? She walks into homeroom today and goes and sits next to Pam Troy. She like, hates Pam Troy because of what she said about Tess when she first started school, and you know like, goes around admitting it openly…and Alex are you listening to me?"

Her voice had risen in pitch and volume with every word and Alex winced before placing a calming hand on her arm. "Yeah Maria, I'm listening to you. But this is just you being you. All right?" he stated firmly, ignoring her faint noise of protest, as well as the internal shouting of his own conscience. It was not his secret to tell. "Liz is fine, nothing happened. It's all right here in black and white."

She huffed; crossing her arms over her chest, but did not speak again, obviously put out by his disbelief.

Alex sighed and went back to his bag of cheese puffs, resolving to talk to Liz and Tess about telling Maria the truth. It was one thing when he was lying to them about Raelyn and the others, but it was not fair for Maria to be lied to by all three of her best friends, nor was it safe since she was more than capable of driving them all insane with her snooping until she did find out the truth.

Now if only he could rid of his own feelings of resentment, stemming from both the fact that they had lied to him all these years (although he understood why), and that Lyn and her secret were no longer something special that only he knew. Sometimes he really hated maturity.

x

"I can't believe this is happening," Isabel said disgustedly, glaring at her brother over the picnic table. "I finally feel like we're having a quasi-normal existence, and not only do you blow it with one random act of lunacy, but it turns out that two of our classmates are freaks too." Her glare shifted to Michael, laser-like in its intensity. "How could you let my misguided brother do this?"

"Isabel," Raelyn said soothingly when Michael just gave the blond a pointed look that said quite clearly that he was not taking responsibility for Max's actions. "It's going to be okay."

"Okay? How is it going to be okay?" Isabel asked, frustrated and unwilling to accept the comfort she usually relied on the other girl for.

"Look, I said I was sorry, and like Alex said, it's not like they can turn us in without betraying themselves too," Max said, a hint of a snap to his own tone as their constant berating of him struck a nerve.

"That doesn't matter Max. You broke a sacred pact. It's against the rules, the rules we all agreed to, the rules that _you _suggested!"

"You use your powers all the time Isabel," Max replied, not giving an inch, and she huffed.

"Recreationally, it's hardly the same as saving someone's life in a crowded restaurant," she said heatedly before glancing around and warming her taco with a quick glow of her hand and then waving it in his face. "This isn't going to get us all turned over to a government agency where they'll test us and prod us and oh yeah, exterminate us."

"Neither is what I did," her brother stated firmly. "They're meeting us at Michael and Lyn's place tonight at eight; we'll talk about it then."

Isabel just glared at him again while Raelyn huddled into her brother's side, trying to find peace from the raging emotions of her family, emotions running so hot and fierce that she didn't have any time to dwell on her own fears.

The two boys exchanged guarded glances as Michael wrapped an arm around Lyn and Max studiously ignored his sister. It was going to get worse before it got better, if it got better at all.

x

Liz ducked into the bathroom after parting ways from Tess, splashing some water on her face as she tried to settle her racing mind before her next class. Kyle and Michael and Max and Tess were all bouncing around inside her head like squirrels on crack, each with their own concerns and fears, and none of them easily dealt with.

Maria came out of a stall behind her and Liz's eyes widened slightly. They had not decided when, or what, or how, to tell her yet, and the school bathroom was definitely not the place.

"Hey," she said, managing to sound calm despite the fact that her tension level had just rocketed to a new high, not all time, but close.

"So I called like, thirty-seven times," Maria replied quietly, thinly veiled hurt in her tone, and Liz winced, feeling a fresh surge of guilt. The universe was just not taking it easy on her today.

"I know, I'm sorry." It was not enough, but she did not know what else she could say without outright lying to her best friend, something she tried to avoid doing, especially given just how much information she was keeping from her already.

"Liz, what happened?"

She was dreading that question and she took a small breath before asking with just the right note of cluelessness, "What do you mean Maria? You were there, you saw everything."

"Did I?" Maria asked, shaking her head, "Because some of those drops we cleaned up did not look like ketchup. What did Max do to you?"

The brunette took a moment to organize her thoughts as she dried her hands, before turning to her best friend and locking gazes with her. "Maria, I promise you that I am fine and everything is going to be okay. I can't talk about it more right now, but we will talk about this later, okay?"

Maria nodded reluctantly, a hint of relaxation to her shoulders at the message that she would be getting answers, just not right then, and Liz hugged her before walking back out the bathroom and into the hallway, head swirling.

Control and organization were impossible to maintain in a state of chaos, something that made her want to tear her hair out. Everything was getting so complicated, and she had a feeling that nothing was going to be simple again for a very long time, meaning that the control she lived for, was going to be out of her reach for a while yet.

x

The jeep was speeding down the highway, Isabel's long blonde hair blowing in the wind in the backseat as a CD spun between her fingers, filling her ears with soothing music and drowning out the panic that had been screaming to get out ever since Saturday.

Raelyn was fighting with her own red curls, struggling to get them into a scrunchie and ruthlessly blocking her family's emotions, along with her own, while Michael brooded out the front passenger window.

Max glanced at the blond in the backseat with a disapproving expression on his face. "Isabel, could you please not do that?"

Isabel rolled her eyes, "Yeah, like listening to a CD is the problem."

"I couldn't just let her die," Max replied defensively, and the tension in the vehicle rose once again, causing Raelyn to slump back into her seat, scrunchie falling back into her lap as she closed her eyes in resignation, shield collapsing under the sudden onslaught.

"Can we please just stop arguing about it?" she asked quietly, but with an edge to her voice that was not usually present, the constant pressure of everyone else's nerves on top of her own taking its toll.

They all fell guiltily silent, Isabel squeezing her hand apologetically, until flashers appeared in the rearview mirror and all four of them stiffened with fear as they recognized the sheriff's sedan.

Max pulled over, speaking softly but quickly, "He always pulls kids over, he does it all the time, it's nothing."

The sheriff walked up the driver's side door before anyone else could comment, his face blank and posture intimidating, "Your license and registration please."

"Of course officer," Max said in a pleasant tone as he leaned over and pulled the papers out of his glove box, then handed them to the man while the other three teens did their best to appear relaxed.

Valenti perused the documents for a moment before handing them back with a bland smile, "Thank you Mr. Evans. We had a little trouble at the Crashdown Café yesterday. You kids be careful out there."

"Yes sir." Max straightened slightly and shifted his foot back towards the gas pedal. It clinked against a half empty Tabasco bottle and the unexpected sound made his heart race.

The sheriff glanced down at his feet with an expression Max could not read, but did not like. It was probably just the unsafe factor of having anything by the pedals. That had to be it. "Watch your speed. Arrive alive."

"We will," Max replied with a nod, and fought a sigh of relief as the sheriff strode back to his vehicle and pulled away without further comment. Reaching for the keys he went to start his own vehicle, but was stopped when Michael grabbed his hand.

"Liz and Tess might not tell anyone, but you still screwed up Max, and the sheriff is suspicious. We need to keep an eye on him, and on Kyle."

Max opened his mouth to disagree, but then closed it again as he thought about Kyle dating Liz, and saw the still present terror lurking in Isabel and Raelyn's eyes. "Fine, but don't do anything stupid."

"Whatever," Michael said noncommittally as he leaned back into his seat and allowed Max to start the jeep.

The other boy sighed, wondering what exactly his somewhat brother had planned, and if he was going to regret giving that tacit permission, as he pulled back onto the road and tried not to think about Liz, or Kyle, or what the sheriff's look might mean.

Michael's own thoughts were focused on the brunette his brother was avoiding thoughts of, every interaction of the past year being analyzed for clues to her sister's heritage, things he should have noticed or felt. While part of him could not help but like the fact that she knew their secret, and had a secret of her own, the rest was far too worried over the implications of what had happened to reveal those secrets, and who else might discover them.

Maybe Alex was right, maybe he would have healed her if he had the chance, but what could have happened was not important, only what did happen, and what did happen could bring their whole lives crashing down.

So no matter how glad he might be that Liz was alive, if something happened to Lyn, or Isabel, or even Max because of it, he did not know if the cost would be worth it, and he resolved to do whatever it took, no matter how 'stupid', to keep them safe.


	3. Chapter Three: What You Think You Know

**A/N:** The lyrics below are from the song 'Ordinary' by Train.

* * *

><p><em>Whose eyes am I behind<br>I don't recognize anything that I see  
>Whose skin is this design<br>I don't want this to be the way that you see me  
>I don't understand anything anymore<em>  
><em>In this world that I'm tired of<em>  
><em>Is taking me right up these walls<em>  
><em>That I climb up<em>  
><em>To get to your story<em>  
><em>It's anything but ordinary<em>

_**Chapter Three: What You Think You Know**_

_Still September 20th, 1999_

The restaurant was packed. It was still early enough after the start of school that the homework haze had not set in yet, and the various athletes were constantly starving as the coaches intensified their practices to make up for summer laziness. Luckily, their father had instituted a strict, no working after seven on school nights policy, so Liz, Tess, and Maria all clocked off at seven on the dot.

Maria had been oddly quiet all shift, not bantering with them as enthusiastically as usual, and by silent conversation, the two sisters had agreed that they needed to tell her the truth before going to the meeting, because the longer they waited, the worse the betrayal would be. Neither had been able to voice their concerns that she wouldn't forgive them no matter when they told her.

"Want to come up stairs, to talk?" Liz asked her as they changed in the backroom, nerves fluttering in her stomach as she wondered whether or not she would still be able to count Maria as a friend the next day.

The blonde's green eyes narrowed as she looked between the two of them, "Are you sure?"

They both nodded and Tess linked her arm with Maria's, leading her up the stairs. "Dad will be busy until late so we'll have privacy."

Despite that declaration, they led her into their bedroom and closed the door behind them, just in case he ducked his head in to the apartment to make sure they were okay, which, given his renewed protective streak, was likely.

Tess gently pushed Maria down onto Liz's bed before moving to sit on the windowsill while Liz paced, unable to hold still.

"So talk. Tell me the truth, what really happened on Saturday," Maria said pleadingly after a moment of weighted silence, and Liz took a deep, steadying, breath.

"We will, I promise, but first we have to tell you something about us. Something big." Reaching up, she ran her hands through her hair, nearly twitching with anxiousness as she spoke in a rush, too afraid to slow her speech. "Tess and I aren't exactly normal. We…we can do things; we know things, that regular people don't."

She paused, trying to find a way to say it that would not send Maria screaming into the streets. "We, we think that Tess is an alien," Liz finally stated awkwardly, her usual talent with words abandoning her in the heat of the moment.

But that did not seem to matter to Maria who just gave her a sad smile and said, so softly that the sisters had to strain to hear, "I know."

"You know?" Tess asked dumbfoundedly, her face pale with shock.

Maria nodded and sighed, leaning back on the bed. "I mean I didn't know you were an _alien,_ but I've known that you were different for years. I saw you change the color of your dress when we were in fourth grade, and I saw Liz get rid of an ink spill on one of her books when I visited you in Florida that first summer, and I know you two can talk without saying anything out loud, and since you're not real twins, I always knew there was something else to explain it."

She stopped and took a breath, closing her eyes for a long moment before opening them to reveal tears glistening on their emerald surfaces, tears that were threatening to overflow. "What I don't know is why you never told me. Don't you trust me?"

"Oh Maria," Liz sat on the bed next to her and pulled her into a hug, "Of course we trust you! We just didn't know what to say when we were little and then dad sent us away and…"

"And by the time we got back, we felt guilty for lying to you for so long," Tess finished for her, sitting on the other side of Maria and sandwiching her in a two-way hug.

Maria hugged them back and for a moment all three girls just sat there, feeling the contentment that only friendship brings, all glad that there would be no more secrets between them, although the guilt and hurt had not yet run its course.

Finally Maria pulled away, jumping to her feet as the air around her practically crackled with excitement. "So what does Max have to do with this? What happened in the café?"

"Well it turns out he's an alien too," Tess said with a grin, her heart lightened by the knowledge that she no longer had to lie to Maria, or Alex, about who she really was.

"What?" Maria gasped, the blood draining from her face as she clutched at Liz's desk chair.

"Yup, he, Michael, Isabel, and Lyn are all like me and Liz."

"Tess!" Liz admonished, frowning slightly, "That wasn't our secret to tell."

Tess shrugged unconcernedly, still watching the expressions playing out on their friend's face with clear amusement, "Were you going to lie to her?"

"Well no, but…"

"Oh my God! I thought an alien was hot! And Liz! You have a crush on an alien, and so does Alex! Oh my God, does Alex know?" Maria bubbled, cutting off the sisters' discussion as her hands wildly moved through the air, her body almost vibrating with the strength of her emotions.

Tess giggled and even Liz grinned, both glad that Maria was taking this so well. "Yes Alex knows, although we don't know how," Liz told her, and reminded herself to talk to Alex about just how he did know, and what he really thought about her and Tess.

"Oh my god this is so huge! There are aliens, actual aliens in Roswell, and I know them! I know you're not evil Tess, but what about the others? How do we know that they're not here for like, some nefarious purpose? Max seems nice enough, but Isabel is scary and Michael's all ticking time bomb," She finally paused for breath, her face a hair away from turning blue due to lack of oxygen.

"Breathe, Maria, breathe," Liz said affectionately but firmly as she too jumped to her feet and grabbed her friend's shoulders, shaking her gently. "Max saved my life, so they can't be that bad." Maria opened her mouth to protest and Liz put her hand over her mouth. "We'll tell you everything we know, we promise, just breathe."

She felt a sudden wetness on her hand and pulled it away with a yelp, "Oh gross, Maria."

Maria just grinned unrepentantly and bounced back onto the bed, jostling Tess who was laughing at both of them, "Tell me everything!"

So they did. They told her about their powers, about the dreams, that they had no idea who Max and the others were until the shooting, and that they had a meeting with them that night.

She had not liked the idea of them going there alone, and when they made it clear that they were going anyway, she wanted to tag along. They had vetoed that idea, pointing out that Maria did not have any ability to defend herself if they were wrong about the others' intentions. Finally, she had agreed to leave after extracting a promise that they would call her as soon as they got home.

Tess had thought to get Michael's address before leaving school, so they headed down the fire escape and took the truck, knowing that their father would not notice it missing during the late rush.

Liz drove and they were both silent on the ride over, the nerves that they had not let Maria see finally surfacing. Even if Liz was right, and they were the three from her dreams, that was no guarantee that they would be allies in this life. They were also afraid of what they might know. Tess in particular, was terrified that there was some grand purpose to her being reborn, and that tonight would ruin every bit of normal she had left.

Liz parked the car and turned to take Tess's hands. "It will be fine. We'll be fine; and no matter what, I will always be here for you, okay?"

Tess nodded, blinking back happy tears, as she pulled Liz in for a hug. "I'm glad you're my sister."

"Me too," Liz replied with her own damp smile, and the two girls hugged for several more seconds before gathering themselves and pulling apart, then stepping out the car.

No more delays; it was time to face their fears.

x

Michael was standing in their kitchen because he could not watch Max pace the five steps between the TV, and the couch where the girls sat, one more time without snapping. He leaned against the counter and gripped the edge so hard his knuckles whitened as he tried to reign in his emotions, wondering what was taking Liz and Tess so god damn long. He had not had a moment's peace since they agreed to this meeting, his mind endlessly circling through every possibility, everything that the two might have to say.

He had always wanted answers, always wanted to know where they came from, why they were here. But once he was old enough to think it through, he had realized that he might not like those answers.

Because it wasn't just about him, he had a sister to think about, a sister that whoever sent them here might not be too happy about. Of course, that was assuming that they had been sent here, and not just abandoned after the crash. After all, until they found out about Tess, they had never heard, nor seen, any sign of another alien, or anything to indicate that they were not, in fact, alone.

A sudden knock sounded on his door, and his breath let out with an explosive gasp, his shoulders tensing into solid knots as he released the counter and stalked back into the living room just as Max opened the door, revealing the two unassuming girls standing on the other side.

His eyes locked with Liz's and he saw his same fears and worries reflected in their chocolate brown depths. Oddly enough, that reassured him, and he leaned against the couch behind his sister with a touch more confidence than he had felt moments before. At least he was not the only one worried about what had happened, and what was going to happen. He should have known that Parker too, would see the bigger picture.

Liz stepped into the room first, followed by Tess, and both of them shifted uncomfortably under the four intent gazes trained on them. Lyn scooted closer to Isabel and patted the couch, stating with a friendly smile. "You guys can sit down."

Both girls smiled hesitantly back at her as they perched gingerly on the couch, and Michael felt himself relax a little further. Lyn was in the best position to know if they were trustworthy, and if she liked them, that was a good sign.

x

The room was deathly silent, the four girls all staring at the floor while Max was staring intently at Liz, until Michael cleared his throat and asked abruptly. "How did you remember the pods?"

Everyone jumped a little and Tess shook her head, muttering mostly to herself, "Damn nerves, all shot to hell."

They all relaxed a little and Liz grinned at her sister before sobering and turning to face Michael where he stood behind the couch. "I started having dreams last year."

His eyebrows rose, not having expected that answer, and she sighed. "This is probably going to take a while, could you move so I don't get a permanent crick in my neck?"

Raelyn and Tess both chuckled and Michael rolled his eyes before pushing off the couch and walking around it to lean against the wall next to the chair Max had taken. "Better?"

"Much," Liz replied sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes. He grunted and she smiled briefly before settling a little deeper into the couch and taking a breath. "I started having dreams about aliens, aliens who lived on a planet called Antar, and later, aliens who lived on a planet called Darrgeos." She bit her lip, sorting through the information as she tried to decide what to tell.

Antar, Darrgeos – which one had they come from Michael wondered with a strange mixture of dread and elation. They had known that they were most likely not of this Earth; given their location it had been the most likely explanation for their differences, but actually knowing the name of the planet they had come from, that made it sink in. He was an alien, with all that entailed. Liz started speaking again and he tried to focus, pushing away thoughts of choices and consequences.

"The dreams showed me a lot of things, but they focused on four individuals; Zan, Rath, Vilandra, and Avallin." After that statement she paused for a second time and looked around, gauging their reactions.

Lyn looked fascinated but there was no hint of recognition in her eyes. The other three though, were all frowning. "Those names sound familiar," Isabel stated hesitantly. "But I know I've never heard them before."

"You don't remember," Tess said flatly, and Isabel shook her head, her eyes dark and uncertain.

"Remember what?" Michael asked, his tone aggravated, and Tess gave him an unhappy smile.

"Remember us, all of us, those were our names."

Everyone, excluding Liz, gasped. "What do you mean?" Max asked shakily, his face pale. The names did have a strange sense of déjà-vu attached to them, but how could they have had different names? They had only been children when they hatched.

Liz took Tess's hand and squeezed it comfortingly as she picked up the narrative. "The first time I saw Avallin in one of the dreams I recognized her aura, it was the same as Tess's. You," she nodded towards Max. "Have the same aura as Zan, Isabel has Vilandra's, and Michael has Rath's."

"So you did know who we were," Michael said accusingly and she shook her head.

"No, I don't go around looking at everyone's aura," she said firmly. "And I had no idea that anyone but Tess had been reborn until this summer."

"What happened this summer?" Lyn asked, when the other remained silent, still digesting what they had been told already.

"Let me go back first," Liz said gently. "It will make more sense that way." They all nodded, even Michael after a grudging moment, and so she continued. "Zan and Vilandra were twins; Zan was firstborn and the heir to the throne of Antar."

Max rocked back in his chair and Isabel gasped. Not only had they lived before, but they had been royalty? What did that mean, why were they here? The two siblings' eyes locked, communicating joy over the fact that they really were related, and fear over what this meant for their lives, for the family here that they loved.

Michael waited impatiently to hear about Rath, not quite ready to deal with the thought of Max and Isabel being royalty, and what that meant to the dynamic of their friendship. Or, more importantly, what that meant for why they were here and what they might be meant to do.

Liz had paused to let that sink in, and against her will, her eyes were drawn to Michael's brooding frame as she continued. "Rath was their best friend, a cousin by marriage who was raised alongside them, and he was trained to become Zan's second-in-command and eventual head of the Antarian armed forces."

Michael met Liz's curiously intent gaze for a moment before looking away, trying to absorb the thought of himself as a leader of any sort. The soldier part felt right, but the rest, it seemed as unfathomable as Max being heir to a throne. Only Isabel's identity as a princess seemed to make sense; it would certainly explain a few of her personality quirks he thought, lips twisting with dark humor.

"Who was Avallin?" he asked to break the silence, uncomfortable with the way the brunette continued to watch him, and wondering how her sister fit into all of this.

Liz glanced at Tess, feeling her sister's uncertainty, but knowing that they needed to share everything if they wanted this partnership to start out right. "Avallin wasn't Antarian; she was from the neighboring planet of Darrgeos. Some of the political leaders on Darrgeos, though not the Royal Family, were causing tension with the Antarians, and Zan, Vilandra, and Rath were sent there for peace conferences. Avallin was the youngest child of the Queen of Darrgeos, and became friends with all three."

No one spoke and after a moment she continued, gripping her sister's hand tightly for comfort. "After a few months, or the equivalent, when Avallin had grown close to all of them, she and Zan were betrothed."

Max's sudden sharp intake of breath echoed through the room as his gaze shot towards the blonde, and Tess stared determinedly down at her feet, wishing with all her might that they did not have to tell the others anything. She hated this, hated being identified with someone she did not remember being. Tess Parker was the only person she remembered being. The only person she wanted to be.

"Avallin came back to Antar with them for the betrothal ceremony. After the ceremony was performed, she moved into the palace. Sometime after, before the actual wedding, the palace was attacked and all of you were killed." Liz's words were soft and quiet, but they impacted the room with all the force of an explosion, each teenager feeling a sickening jolt of fear and confusion as Liz's simple words sent their emotions spinning out of control.

"Who killed us, and why?" Michael grated out into the horrified silence; his fists clenching as he tried to control the fear and rage boiling beneath his skin and ignored the tense, worried look on his sister's face as she watched him.

"I don't know, and I don't know how or why you were sent here," Liz said with obvious frustration, running her hand through her hair and biting her lip. "The only dream I've had since I saw," she paused, voice breaking, "Since I saw Ava die, was of Tess waking up in the pod. That's how we knew there were three others." She shrugged helplessly. "Until the shooting we had no idea who was in those other three pods."

"Do, do you guys know anything?" Tess asked after the ensuing silence had become unbearable, tension stringing her nerves so tight she was surprised that she had not started twitching uncontrollably.

Michael laughed bitterly. "No, apparently whoever sent us here, didn't think we needed to know anything." He shook his head and began to pace agitatedly, seeing the same shock and disbelief he felt, reflected on the rest of his family's faces. He wanted to doubt what she had said, scoff that it was impossible, but his gut told him it was all true. He locked eyes with Liz, ignoring the pull of her chocolate brown irises, and boiled all of his concerns down to the one question he could ask. "Why you? Why are you seeing these things that none of us remember?"

"I wish I knew," she said quietly, her eyes showing the same frustration he felt, and he sighed, realizing that for all they had just learned, they were still back to square one. They knew their supposed past, some of it, but not the present, not the future, and not the _why, _which was the most important thing as far as he was concerned. All they could do now was hope that either Liz's dreams continued, or a new source of information opened up.

That, and do their best to keep suspicion off of them. It was back to business as usual – pretending to be normal all while desperately searching for answers and praying that those answers didn't bite them in the ass.

The silence progressed from uncomfortable, to unbearable, none of them knowing what to say, what could be said, until Tess cleared her throat, desperate to get out of the suddenly stifling room. "Well, if there's nothing else, our father's going to notice we're gone soon and he, he's a little overprotective, especially now," she stated, her voice soft but firm as she stood and pulled Liz to her feet.

Max and Michael both looked like they wanted to protest, while Isabel was sill staring blankly into space. Lyn shot both of the boys a quelling glance and Michael rolled his eyes but nodded. "Whatever, we can talk more tomorrow."

Liz rolled her eyes right back at him. "Thank you _so _much."

Tess snickered and even Max cracked a grin, while Liz and Michael locked gazes for a heated moment before both looked away, not ready to deal with the things they saw lurking in each others' eyes.

Tess tugged Liz towards the door and she followed willingly, casting one last appraising glance over her shoulder at the other four teenagers before closing the door behind her. Liz knew her sister had always wanted more people to know about them, more people to talk to, to accept her. Liz had been the one to hold back from telling Maria and Alex, because Liz preferred the secrecy, finding it safer, and with four, no six, more people knowing the truth, that was six more possibilities of someone saying or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time and bringing their lives crashing down around them.

No matter how much they might learn from the four teenagers behind the door she had just closed, and no matter how much of an irresistible pull she felt towards Michael, she wished the shooting had never happened because above all else, she wanted Tess to be safe. Safe for the future, and safe from the past – neither seemed likely anymore.

x

After they left, Michael kicked Max and Isabel out of the apartment too, claiming the need for sleep since both he and Lyn had work after school the next day. Lyn gave him a knowing stare as soon as he locked the door behind them, but remained silent, letting him stew in peace and disappearing into her room so her powers wouldn't drive her to bugging him despite her best intentions.

Michael slumped onto the couch, shifting down a cushion with an annoyed grunt when he realized that he could smell Liz's unmistakable, and tantalizing, vanilla scent. Ignoring her was so much easier when she wasn't invading every part of his life. As much as it irritated him, when she started dating Kyle it had made things easier, removed the temptation to take a risk and act on his own feelings, but now. He growled and shook his head, frustrated with himself.

He shouldn't be thinking about this, about her, when they had so many other worries. If they really had lived before, as royalty no less, then there was no way that there wasn't some purpose to their existence. And since they had been killed the first time around, it wouldn't just be the 'good' guys looking for them. As ignorant as they were, they wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between the 'good' guys and the 'bad' guys when they did show up, and he was very sure that someone would show up, assuming they weren't already being watched. It couldn't be that be hard to find four aliens in the middle of the small alien capital of the world, not if you knew what you were looking for.

That thought sent an atavistic shiver down his spine and his knuckles tightened against his jeans. Blissful ignorance had almost been better than this – knowing just enough to know how much they didn't know. Damn Liz Parker all to hell; it was her getting shot and her stupid dreams that were to blame for his current turmoil. His lips twisted into a self-mocking smile, like he wouldn't be stalking her every day to find out if she'd had any more dreams. Hypocrites are us.

His head thunked against the back of the couch and he stared at the ceiling – stalking Liz Parker; that was an entirely too enticing prospect.


	4. Chapter Four: Hiding in Plain Sight

**A/N:** The lyrics below are from the song Conspiracy by Paramore

* * *

><p><em>Please speak softly, for they will hear us<br>And they'll find out why we don't trust them  
>Speak up dear cause I cannot hear you<br>I need to know why we don't trust them  
>Explain to me this conspiracy against me<em>  
><em>And tell me how I've lost my power<br>Where can I turn? Cause I need something more_  
><em>Surrounded by uncertainties I'm so unsure of<em>  
><em>Tell me why I feel so alone cause I need to Know to whom do I owe<em>

_**Chapter Four: Hiding in Plain Sight**_

_September 21st, 1999_

Liz walked into the band room, frowning as she stared around the room, hands on her hips. Where was it? It wasn't like her to be so forgetful; she never lost things, unlike Maria who would probably prove that old saw about losing her unattached head true if it were possible.

"Hey," someone said behind her, sending her heart into a frantic race as the paranoia and tension of the past few days resurged, and she spun to see Alex standing in the doorway, watching her with a strange look in his pale blue eyes.

She relaxed, pulse slowing in relief, and smiled at him. "Hey Alex, any chance you've seen my book bag?"

"No I haven't," he said with a shake of his head, before fixing her with an oddly serious stare, his usual warmth visibly lacking. "Any chance you've talked to Maria."

She nodded and then stepped forward, impulsively hugging him, relieved when she felt him relax and felt the return of his usual cheerfulness with her 'other' senses. "I'm sorry we lied to you guys, Alex, we were just afraid."

He hugged her back, his eyes softening as he smiled down at her. "It's okay, I get it. I'm just glad neither of us have to lie anymore."

"Me too," Liz stated simply, giving him one last grateful squeeze. She pulled away and her smile widened into a mischievous grin. "So, in the spirit of honesty, what _is _going on between you and Raelyn?"

He flushed, fidgeting nervously with the chain at his belt. "We're just friends, nothing more."

Her lips twitched suspiciously, but her tone was serious as she asked. "And you're okay with that?"

He shrugged, smile fading. "It hasn't been that long since Nick, and I don't even think she likes me like that." He sighed, attempting a self-depreciating smile. "I think that once again, I have become one of the girls."

Liz shook her head firmly, squeezing his arm in an attempt to dispel his defeated slump. "I promise you Alex, Raelyn does not think of you as one of the girls. I've seen the way she looks at you, and the way Michael glares at you sometimes, you definitely have a shot."

"If you say so," he mumbled, but she could see the renewed hope in his eyes and grinned, about to speak again when the principal and the deputy from the other day walked into the room, both looking straight at her. Her heart sank all the way to her shoes and she automatically stepped away from Alex, wanting to distance him from any suspicion.

"Miss Parker, the sheriff needs to ask you some questions."

Liz fought the urge to glance worriedly at the boy beside her, before steeling her shoulders and following them out of the room, perky waitress smile pasted in place as she summoned every ounce of calm she possessed. Time to lie like the champ Tess always accused her of being.

x

Michael watched Liz get into the deputy's cruiser, fists clenching with fear and anger as he saw how tiny she looked compared to the man escorting her. The appearance of the protective instinct that normally only kicked in with his family, was setting him on edge, and instead he tried to focus his anger. She'd better be good at lying, because the last thing they needed was the sheriff snooping around, too many people knew already and his paranoia was in high gear.

Turning away from the sight of the cruiser pulling out of the parking lot, he saw Tess watching her sister with the same frightened and angry expression on her face that he knew was on his. Their eyes met and a brief spark of understanding flared between them before he looked away, uncomfortable with adding anyone else to the limited circle of people he worried about, or who could read him.

Lyn was talking with Alex at their usual tree and he walked towards them, ignoring the gaze he could feel burning into his back. Tess could stare at him all she wanted; he had more than enough practice at ignoring anyone he wanted to.

Max intercepted him before he reached his sister, and he glared at the other boy, his frustration seeking an outlet and finding the other boy a ready and easy target.

"Where was Liz going?" Max demanded, and Michael rolled his eyes.

"To the sheriff's station maybe? Given her escort, that would be the logical conclusion. And no Max, before you ask, I don't know why, was there anything else?" he stated sarcastically, feeling a faint surge of satisfaction shaded with the faintest twinge of guilt as the other boy winced and visibly deflated.

"Sorry, I know you don't know anything. I just hope she's okay."

"She'll be fine Maxwell; the sheriff isn't going to do anything to her other than ask her about you. Worry about that."

x

"Afternoon Miss Parker. Your father said it would be all right if I talked to you. I'm sorry to bring up what must have been a horrible experience, but there were some unusual things about the bullet we found and I wanted to ask you a few questions about what happened."

Liz's heart palpitated violently against her rib cage, but she managed to maintain her smile as she nodded and asked innocently, "What kind of strange things?"

"Well, it didn't look like the bullet had ever been fired from a gun; it had no markings on it and was barely flattened from impacting with the wood. Did you notice anything, strange, about the shooting?" He paused, eyes boring into her, "Or maybe something that happened afterwards?"

"I honestly don't remember much sir. I saw the gun and it scared me; I went to duck down and knocked the ketchup off the counter. When I saw how close it came to hitting me…" she trailed off, letting her very real fear color her voice. "Everything else was just kind of a blur. I didn't even notice the men running out and nothing that happened afterwards, except everyone making sure I was okay."

"Does that everyone include Max Evans?" he asked pointedly, and she couldn't stop herself from flinching slightly.

"He was in the café that day; he comes in a lot, and he might have been one of the people that ran up to me after, but like I said, everything was kind of a blur." Her voice was steady despite her nerves, and tilting her head to the side, she managed a pointed question of her own, although her voice remained soft and girlish. "You don't think he was involved do you? Because I don't see how that's possible."

"No Miss Parker, we're just trying to cover every angle. No one was hurt, but it could have been a tragedy if things had gone differently; I won't feel like I've done my job until I've done everything I can to get the ones responsible behind bars."

"I'll feel safer when you catch those two men, Sheriff; I'm sure you'll catch the right criminals," she commented after a moment, feeling a wave of anger that she barely managed to hide at the fact that he seemed more interested in seeing if an innocent boy had saved her life, than catching the man who almost ended it.

"Can I go home now Sheriff? I have homework and I'd like to spend some time with my family, my dad likes to keep us close, especially now."

He nodded, eyes softening slightly although his face remained serious as he reached behind his desk and pulled out her missing book bag. Liz's eyes widened as she frantically tried to remember if there was anything incriminating in the bag; thank God she never carried her journals around.

"Just one more thing. Somebody turned in this book bag, it is yours isn't it?"

She nodded, reaching for it. He handed it to her, and then reached behind his desk one more time to pull out a book, one about the 'true' story of the Roswell crash. "Interesting reading material."

She accepted the book with a faint smile, tucking it into the bag. "Just looking for ideas for my Crash costume; I wanted to go really authentic this year."

He nodded and finally let her go, offering a ride home which she declined with a polite shake of her head. She managed to keep her back straight and head high until she was around the corner from the sheriff's station, then collapsed against a convenient storefront and tried to catch her breath, her heart gradually beginning to slow into a somewhat normal rhythm.

If she never saw the inside of his office again, it would be too soon, and she only hoped that her answers had been enough to deter him from investigating any further. Opening her eyes, she stepped back onto the sidewalk, the burn of acid at the back of her throat convincing her that her hope was merely a convenient lie to herself.

They would have to be even more careful, and make sure that no more mistakes were made. She doubted he could prove that the bullet had been created on the spot, but if he got more evidence…

They couldn't let that happen.

x

"A shot was fired, but there is no way that this bullet was ever fired from a gun. I'm telling you, something happened in that café."

The man in the black suit stood and tucked the plastic specimen jar containing the bullet into his briefcase.

"What are you doing?"

"I have a flying cow sighting in Albuquerque and a lawyer who thinks he's Abraham Lincoln reincarnated. Both cases are more solid than this. I'll have this checked out at the lab. Call me Sheriff, if you ever have anything…real."

Valenti frowned, his hands gripping his desk to keep himself from doing something stupid out of frustration. "Listen, you guys told me to call you if I saw anything; whatever happened that day was not normal." He knew that Liz Parker was lying to him; she was good, but so was he, and if whatever had happened that day was normal, then she wouldn't have any reason to lie to him.

"I'm sure it wasn't," the agent replied blandly, and the corners of the sheriff's mouth tightened.

"What happens now?"

"The lab will examine the bullet for anomalies. I'm going to handle this case in the proper manner without getting too personal. I suggest you do the same."

"I'm not walkin' away from this. This is my town and I'm gonna be a part of this investigation."

"Sheriff, do you know what they used to call your father? Sergeant Martian. You don't want to end up like him."

"Agent Stevens, I was eight-years-old when my father discovered that corpse; my whole life I thought he was as crazy as everyone else did. Crazy to believe. Now I'm not so sure."

A faint smile crossed the agent's face and he nodded shortly. "Thank you Sheriff. Your work is done now; we'll take it from here."

Jim watched him walk out the door, confusion, resentment, and frustration swirling in his gut. There was something going on, something strange, and if he could prove that old Jimmy Valenti wasn't the town nut, well that was worth pushing some buttons. No matter how innocent Miss Parker's doe-brown eyes were. The Parkers weren't the only family to suffer loss, and the stain on his family name had last far too long. Not to mention that lying to the law usually meant a dangerous secret and his job meant protecting people from danger, even when they didn't think they needed it.

x

Liz slipped into the backroom of the Crashdown via the side door, and felt something inside of her relax when she saw Tess and Alex sitting on the couch in the back, both looking at her expectantly, friendship obviously intact.

She smiled, but held up one finger and moved to the swinging door that led to the restaurant, peeking through the circular window to see Max and Michael in their usual booth. Maria, clad in the ubiquitous aqua green uniform, caught her eye and hurried towards her. Liz stepped back as she came through the door, reaching a deft hand into the other girl's apron and pulling out her order pad.

Maria shot her a quizzical glance, opening to her mouth to speak, but Liz shook her head, scribbling a note onto the top piece of paper and handing it back to the blond. "Can you give this to Michael?"

Her best friend frowned, eyes narrowing, "If I do, will you tell me what's going on?"

Liz nodded, smile widening, "Yes Maria, I promise, if you give him that and bring it back with his answer, I will tell all of you what's going on."

The blonde eyed her for another minute before accepting the order pad and disappearing back through the door. Liz walked back to the couch and collapsed next to her sister, closing her eyes as she tried to gather her thoughts, and ignore the two intent stares boring into her skull.

There was heavy silence for several minutes and then Maria came back through the doors, waving the piece of paper. "So, why are we meeting at Michael's apartment tonight?"

Liz opened her eyes and gave all three teens a grim smile. "Because it's time we laid all the cards on the table. The sheriff is suspicious and if we don't stick together, he's going to figure it out, and I don't think we'll all survive if he does."

Maria looked startled at the thought of her almost step-father being that much of a threat, but Tess and Alex looked equally grim and both nodded, their eyes dark with unspoken fears. They both knew that it wasn't strangers who were the most dangerous to their lives; it was those close enough to see all the pieces of the puzzle.

x

Michael stared at the door that the annoyingly talkative blonde had vanished through, brow furrowed in thought. He could only assume that Liz had requested the meeting with all of them because of whatever had happened at the sheriff's station. She better have a damn good explanation for why Maria seemed to suddenly be in the loop. Alex was one thing, but he in no way trusted that girl to keep a secret, no matter whose life depended on it.

Max was lost in thought, an all-too-familiar dreamy cast to his gaze, and Michael rolled his eyes before sliding out of the booth. "I have to get to work; I'll see you tonight."

He stalked out of the restaurant without waiting for a reply, anger over the situation, and Max's apparent lack of concern, burning in his gut. They had much bigger things to worry about that Max's damn crush and whether or not Liz returned it. Michael wasn't oblivious to the attractions of the brunette, quite the opposite, but he knew better than to let his feelings get in the way of keeping them safe.

His first instinct after Max had healed Liz, before they learned that Liz had secrets of her own, had been to leave, and with the sheriff sniffing around, it made the urge that much harder to resist. But Lyn wouldn't leave, and he wouldn't ask her to. And now there were all of these other people who knew, and two who were like them, and there was a past they desperately needed to learn about.

When he let himself think logically, he knew that the best way to ensure that the answers would come to them was to stay put. Of course, it was also the best way to ensure that anyone who wanted them dead, or worse, knew where to find them, and that thought made him have to focus on Hank to stop himself from punching something, or someone.

Max, all of them, needed to focus on finding answers and avoiding suspicion, not on panting after Liz like a dog in heat. He knew he was being less than charitable towards his brother, who was worried about exposure, even if he didn't show it, but his anger and frustration didn't care. He wouldn't let his anger get the best of him, he was better than that, but he needed to calm down before his shift started, so he turned left instead of right at the next street, energy already gathering in his palms as he imagined the satisfying explosion of the few large boulders he had left standing last time.

Sometimes being an alien had its perks.

x

Lyn smiled banally at the older woman as she rang up her purchases, wrapping each candle in tissue paper before handing her the bag. "Have a nice day Mrs. Richards."

The woman continued to chat at her for several more minutes and Lyn just nodded and smiled, interjecting the occasional wordless agreement. Michael's side of the bond had been raging all day, a roller coaster of emotions that only years of practice at riding had enabled her to survive without breaking everything she touched, or without snapping at the customers.

Now he was waiting outside, leaning against the wall next to the backdoor, impatiently counting down the minutes until her shift ended. "Thank you dearie," Mrs. Richards called as she finally left, the bell on the door jingling as it opened and closed. Lyn waved through the glass as she locked the door and then chuckled, 'hearing' another impatient huff from her brother.

Everyone had been wound tight since the shooting. In fact, at the moment, she could barely stand to be alone in a room with anyone in her family, much less all of them. All of the tension they constantly radiated made her want to crawl out of her own skin. The first meeting with Liz and Tess had been even worse, everyone's fear and doubt and anger cascading over in a never ending rush of emotion. Then there was that spike of pure grief when Liz had mentioned seeing her sister die; Lyn shuddered as she moved back behind the counter.

Tonight was adding two more people to the mix and she wasn't looking forward to it, even with Alex's comforting presence to draw on. Her shielding had gotten better since the beginning of freshman year, but there was only so much she could block out, and with that many bundles of emotion in one small space – she'd be lucky if she didn't black out.

She finished counting the register and slipped her backpack on before heading out the side door, glancing at Michael as she locked it behind her and grinning at the frustration evident in his eyes. "You could have come inside and waited," she pointed out, linking her arm through his and smiling innocently up at him. "Your glare probably would have scared Mrs. Richards off and I could have closed earlier."

He shot her an annoyed glance and didn't reply, but she felt a little of his tension ease as he slung an arm around her shoulders and smiled to herself, mission accomplished. Too bad calming him down at the meeting wouldn't be nearly so easy.

x

Alex stared at the unassuming, brown apartment door, hand hovering in midair. Liz's words had been playing in an endless loop in his head all day, and only his fears for his friends with the sheriff snooping around had enabled him to concentrate at all.

He felt guilty for thinking about Rae and what she might think of him when there were so many more important things to worry about, but aside from the life and death secrets he was keeping, he was a typical teenaged boy. No matter how much more civilized he might be from a lifetime of female best friends, every seven seconds was putting it mildly when it came to the direction of his thoughts. "Linoleum indeed," he muttered to himself with a faint snort as he finally let his knuckles rap against the wood.

Tess and Liz had invited him to study with them until the meeting, but aside from wanting to show up early, he had needed some time to think, and not just about Rae.

Learning that Rae and her brother had been hiding such a big secret, well it had been shocking. But not as shocking as learning that two of his best friends were keeping an equally large secret. Rationally he understood why they had kept it from him, but emotionally it was a hard pill to swallow. They were his best friends; they knew everything about him from his distant relationship with his parents, and his dreams of making music despite his computer skills, to his feelings for the redhead on the other side of the door. He trusted them, and he had thought they trusted him in return.

Rae opened the door, her blue-green eyes sparkling at him and snapping him out of his darkening mood. "Thank God, I was about to come see what was keeping you," she said with a warm smile as he followed her into the apartment, and he flushed at the realization that with her gifts, she must have known exactly how long he was standing there.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Just a little busy up here," he replied with a self-deprecating smile as he waggled his fingers in the direction of his forehead.

She laughed softly. "I completely understand. Everyone's a little busy up there lately and it's driving me crazy trying to tune you all out, so I don't pick up things I shouldn't."

He sank down on the couch next to her, eyes widening with concern as he reached out to touch her hand. "I'm sorry, I forgot how much harder this must be for you. Is there anything I can do?"

She shook her head, curls bouncing as her smile grew, and squeezed his hand. "Just be you Alex. Whenever you're around I find it easier to keep everyone else out."

Alex smiled back, unreasonably pleased that he could help her, even if it was something he had no control over. "I wonder why that is? I would think that the others, since they're special like you, would be easier."

She shrugged, a faint frown line appearing between her eyes. "I don't know; Liz is the only one who feels like you do, and her energy, or whatever it is, isn't as soothing as yours."

Alex frowned too, his mind turning over the puzzle. "Liz is like you, Tess changed her, but me? I'm just your average Joe, nothing special about me."

"You are _not _average Alex," Rae said firmly, staring at him until he gave her a smile before her face sobered again. "But I see your point and I don't know what it means, or if it means anything."

Alex nodded slowly, filing their conversation away to go over again later. It might be wishful thinking on his part, wanting any excuse to be closer to Rae, but something in his gut was telling him that those differences were important, and the sooner they figured out why, the better.


	5. Chapter Five: Making and Breaking Friend

**A/N: **The lyrics below are from the song Polygraph, by Right Now.

* * *

><p><em>I wanna tear apart your room<br>to see if what you say is true  
>Darling don't you lie, lie to me<br>I wanna break into your heart  
>to see why you want us apart<br>Oh, I'm scared to death to find out what you think of me_

_**Chapter Five: Making, and Breaking, Friends**_

_Still September 21__st__, 1999_

Vilandra. The name teased at the edges of her consciousness, the syllables resonating with disturbingly strong chords of emotion. If only she could figure out which emotions.

Isabel sighed and rubbed her forehead, staring around her perfectly ordered bedroom with a dissatisfied gaze. Max and Michael teased her about her OCD tendencies, and even Raelyn tended to shoot her amused glances when she reorganized her shoes for the third time in one afternoon. She never really could explain it, but she just liked knowing that everything was in its place, that it all made sense to her, that nothing wasn't where it should be.

She had tried to organize her life the same way, and for the most part she had succeeded. Stellar looks and reputation; check. Charities where she could put her organizational skills to good use and balance out her ice queen image; check. Friends that she could have fun with but was at no risk of actually trusting; check.

Her family wasn't so neatly organized, neither the ones in the know, or her beloved parents who weren't, but she knew which faces to put on when, and when she needed to drop all the masks.

Even her alien nature had its place, held in said place by thick black lines. Things she had to keep secret, people she had to lie to, places she avoided. Her powers had their own niche and using her abilities for trivial things was part of that, a way to distance herself from the stigma of being different, to keep things from getting too serious.

Vilandra didn't fit inside a box. Vilandra did not want to sit silently in the back of her head where she kept everything she refused to think about. Being a princess in a past life? Why not, after all she acted like one in this life. But something inside of her refused to categorize it that easily, refused to accept that the answer was that simple. And she hated it.

She didn't want answers. She didn't want to find out that they had a purpose. She wanted to be Isabel Evans; Ice Queen, Christmas Nazi, future Super Model, beloved daughter to Diane and Philip Evans, sister to Max, Michael, and Raelyn. That was her identity, the knowledge she clung to when nothing else made sense.

She would _not _accept Vilandra as part of that identity.

"We need to go, Isabel!" Max called, his voice urgent, and she rolled her eyes. He wouldn't care so much about this damn meeting if Liz Parker hadn't been the one to ask for it. He had moped incessantly when she asked Michael instead of him, refusing to accept the logical answer that Liz was merely being polite enough to ask the person whose apartment they were taking over.

And Michael, something was up with him, with the way he refused to look at Liz and stiffened when she was brought up. The uninformed might think it was just because that annoyingly not-quite human girl had been the catalyst for the past few days, but Isabel knew her brother better than that, and she was determined to get to the bottom of whatever secret he was hiding.

A thud on her door made her glare as she finished reapplying her lipstick and she wrenched it open, smirking when Max almost fell over. "I'm coming, try and calm down, I doubt Miss Parker finds overenthusiastic puppies attractive."

Max frowned at her but didn't reply verbally to her jab, turning and heading for the front door instead, fist tightly clenched around the keys to the jeep. Isabel sighed, disappointed by his lack of reaction. A good fight would be perfect to distract her from the upcoming discussion, which she just knew would throw her life into further turmoil. Instead it looked like she'd be getting the silent treatment, leaving her entirely alone with her thoughts.

Liz Parker was so going to pay for this.

x

Isabel was glaring at her again. She'd been doing it off and on ever since Liz and Tess showed up with Maria in tow, and it both unnerved and irritated her. Michael had glared at her too when she first admitted that they'd told Maria the truth, but as soon as she made it clear that she didn't feel the least bit regretful, he had retreated into stoic silence.

But, his sister in all but name, apparently had her back up about something and Liz hadn't the faintest clue what it could be, considering that the blonde hadn't glared at her like this during the meeting last night. As far as she knew nothing had changed since then that would affect Isabel in any way.

The brunette shifted uncomfortably on the couch, where she was sandwiched between Tess on her left, and Maria on her right. Raelyn was sitting on the floor with Alex, and Isabel had the lone chair while Michael and Max leaned against the far wall, Michael closer to his sister than Max was to Isabel.

Once Liz had told everyone that the sheriff was suspicious, and about the bullet, they had fallen into an uneasy silence, the tenuous connections between them not strong enough to unite them, and none were sure what could even be done if they were all to agree on a plan of action.

_'Why is Isabel trying to burn a hole in your head?' _Tess asked and Liz shrugged, chuckling softly at the face Tess made until she noticed the way Raelyn's head had snapped away from Alex as she focused in on the two of them.

"You guys can _talk _to each other?" she exclaimed, making everyone snap out of their thoughts and turn to look at the sisters.

Liz and Tess exchanged a wary, surprised glance before nodding. "We've been able to talk like that since we were little; we didn't really think about it, but I assumed you could too," Liz stated hesitantly, asking curiously as the redhead nodded in the affirmative. "Could you hear us?" Raelyn nodded again, her eyes blue and thoughtful. Liz glanced at Max, Isabel, and Michael in turn. "Could any of you hear us?"

They all shook their heads in the negative and Liz turned to look at Raelyn again, wondering why she had such a unique power when she was an altered human just like Liz. Why was it Liz who had dreams and Raelyn who apparently could 'hear' people? What was so special about them?

Frowning, she bit her lip and concentrated, pushing those thoughts away for the moment. _'Michael?' _He stiffened slightly in shock and his caramel eyes locked onto hers before he nodded slowly. Liz smiled, not breaking their gaze, and concentrated harder. _'Can everyone hear me now?'_

"Yes," Max said after a moment, then paused and added _'Yes.' _Followed by a nod from Isabel and a giggle from Tess as she projected the image of a particular cell phone commercial, making all five teens that could 'see', smile.

"What is going on?" Maria burst out before Liz could experiment any further; she had wanted to see if she could block everyone, including Raelyn, out of a conversation, and she shot her friend an apologetic glance instead, shelving it for later. "Sorry Maria, just making some discoveries." She turned to include the entire group in her gaze, deciding that they had been passive long enough. "I think we need to share all of our abilities, group and individual, and if there is anything listed that we can't do or haven't tried, we should try and see if we can all do it."

Max frowned. "Is that a good idea? I'm not sure that's safe; we try to avoid using our powers."

Liz repressed her instinctive eye roll; Tess didn't. "And how's that worked out for you?" the blonde asked sarcastically, ignoring Max's wince. "The more you use them, the less chance of them exploding at random and exposing all of us, which is why we've been practicing them since we were eight."

"Michael and I practice together, in the desert," Raelyn said softly when the tension-filled silence brought on by Tess's words stretched out.

Max shot her a startled look, then turned to Michael with a betrayed one, both were ignored as the siblings were still watching Liz and Tess. "The more we know, the safer we are, Max. Just like the fact that you didn't know how to alter your cheek cells in biology," Liz said persuasively, her expression earnest as she shifted her gaze to Max. "What if one of you was in an accident?" Max's expression softened as he gave a faint nod of agreement and Tess gave a short laugh.

"Control is good, ignorance is bad," she stated pointedly, irritated with his obvious crush on Liz and willingness to listen to her and no one else, despite the exact same point being made, and refusing to consider the idea that he might have nodded even if she'd said what Liz did – right then being irritated suited her very well.

Michael snorted and Liz couldn't repress her smile as she wrapped an arm around her sister. "She's not always nice, but she is right. The more we know about what we can each do, the better prepared we will be to deal with anything that comes up."

"She's right Max," Michael said, speaking for the first time since they'd shown up. Max nodded reluctantly and Michael shifted his gaze to Liz, adding shortly. "I blow stuff up."

Liz's lips twitched and Tess flat out giggled while Maria stared at him unimpressed. "Well that's useful."

Liz squeezed Maria's hand and shot her a warning look. "I don't really do anything that Tess can't do, except for the dreams."

"You're also way better at moving stuff than I am," Tess interjected and Liz shrugged, flushing slightly under Michael's intent appraisal.

"So is Lyn," he said, glancing affectionately down at his sister before looking at Liz again. "Maybe it has something to do with you both developing powers instead of being born with them."

She nodded, turning that over in her mind and adding it to her earlier thoughts about her and Raelyn's differences. There had to be some way to determine exactly why they were different; she really needed to make up some charts and see if the others would consent to her taking some samples.

"Well I can set stuff on fire, sometimes," Tess piped up when Liz remained lost in thought. "So we can add me to the not so useful column," she added with a sly glance at Maria who rolled her eyes, folding her arms over her chest and pouting.

"I can go into people's dreams," Isabel said softly into the ensuing silence, leaving off her glaring at Liz and earning a slightly paranoid look from Maria, and a calculating one from the brunette.

"And I can heal," Max finally interjected, managing a smile. "Obviously."

"Tess can heal, like you can, but I can only do little stuff, is that the same for you guys?" Liz asked curiously, glancing at Isabel, Raelyn, and Michael. They nodded and she flexed her fingers, muttering to herself. "I need paper."

Tess rolled her eyes affectionately and bumped Liz's shoulder. "You can make charts later, OCD girl, it's not like you're going to forget anything."

"As fascinating as this insight into your personality quirks is, there's something else I think we should do," Michael said gruffly, interrupting Liz's embarrassed flush and turning it into an irritated glare.

"And what would that be?" she asked him sarcastically, eyes flashing even as she tamped down on the pleasant, electric shivers his darkened brandy-colored gaze sent through her.

"Well, dream girl," he replied dryly, "Think you could lead us to those pods?"

Liz's mouth gaped slightly and she felt Tess stiffen beside her. Alex and Maria looked confused while Max, Isabel, and Raelyn, were all staring at Michael in surprise. Taking a deep breath, Liz summoned the memory of her last dream, of the winding, stumbling path Tess had taken through the desert and down the road, before nodding slowly. "I think so. I can at least get us close, and maybe one of you will pick up on something."

"Then let's say we all take a field trip this Saturday, since I assume most of us have work after school the rest of the week," Michael stated firmly, barely waiting for Liz's answering nod before continuing. "Was there anything else? Alien or not, I need my beauty sleep."

Maria snorted, muttering something unflattering under her breath, while Liz fought warring urges to say something equally unflattering, or confess that she didn't think he needed beauty sleep, because he was too damn good looking as it was.

Neither reaction would be very conducive to her goal of establishing friendship, just friendship, between all of them, and so she just gave him a tight smile instead. "Works for me; I have something else to do tonight anyways." A tiny flicker of curiosity flashed in his eyes, but he didn't voice a question, and she didn't volunteer an explanation.

They all said their goodbyes and trickled out of the apartment, the only one left after she, Tess, and Maria took their leave, was Alex, and Liz grinned as she saw the way Raelyn was smiling at him – at least one of them might end up happy.

"Mind if I drop you off first?" she asked Tess after hugging Maria goodbye and climbing into their dad's truck, putting it into gear and turning towards her sister.

Tess shot her a piercing look, her eyes very blue and her lips tilted questioningly. "You're really gonna do it?"

Liz nodded, face sober. "I think I have to. It's not fair, to either of us, to keep it going. Not now."

Her sister grimaced slightly, but gave her hand a supportive squeeze. "Just don't forget he's practically family, try not to completely shatter him."

Liz chuckled softly. "I don't think I have the kind of power, but I promise I'll be as nice as I can." Tess gave her a doubtful smile, but nodded, and Liz smiled reassuringly back, pushing down her own doubts as she pulled away from the curb.

Fifteen minutes later and she was pulling up in front of the Valenti home, Tess already ensconced at the Crashdown, and guilty butterflies were swarming in her stomach. She hadn't seen Kyle once outside of school since the shooting, had skipped their date at the Crash festival, and had thought of him even less. He was a good guy, and a great friend, and he deserved better than that. She just hoped he saw it the same way.

She made herself get out of the truck, walk up the driveway, and knock on the door. The sheriff was out, something she was extremely grateful for, and it only took a minute before Kyle opened the door, looking surprised and pleased to see her.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" His tone was warm and welcoming, despite the way she'd practically ignored him, and she felt her heart sink a little lower. Why did Tess always have to be right?

"I was hoping we could talk," she told him seriously, guilt fluttering anew as the smile dropped off of his face and he wordlessly gestured for her to come in. She followed him awkwardly into the living room and shook her head when he offered her a seat, nervously shifting from foot to foot.

"So, is it me, or you, or someone else?" he asked, only a touch of bitter sarcasm marring his tone.

"It's me, completely me," she said quietly, looking down so that she didn't have to see his pained, derisive smile. "There's no one else and you have been amazing, even when I'm never around. You deserve better and I just don't have the time to give, to anyone, right now."

"Right," he said flatly, slumping onto the couch. "So this has nothing to do with Evans? Or Guerin?"

She shook her head, ignoring the little voice in the back of her head that said it _did _have something to do with Michael. "No, just me." She tried for a smile, and wasn't sure if she succeeded. "I know you probably don't want to hear this right now, but I would like for us to still be friends, and not just because of your dad and Maria's mom. I think you're a really great guy, Kyle."

He sort of half nodded, half bitterly smirked, not meeting her gaze, and she shifted awkwardly from side to side once more, before breaking the tension filled silence. "I'm sorry, I'll let myself out."

He ignored her and followed her towards the door, watching until she got into the truck and pulled away from the curb, intensifying her guilt. It was the right decision, she didn't want to lie to someone she was in a relationship in, and between secret meetings, the power sharing she knew was necessary, and would insist on later, not to mention field trips to the desert to find alien caves, there wouldn't be a single part of her life that she could be honest about.

Hopefully her promise to him that it wasn't about anyone else, might help her keep a tight rein on her self control so she could resist her more than friendly thoughts towards a certain, spiky haired alien.

x

Tess was waiting for her on the balcony when she got home, and Liz could feel the disquiet emanating from her in waves. Liz sat down in the other lawn chair and waited, still processing her own emotions from the very long day.

_'I'm afraid to go to the cave; I don't want to see the pods, it's just too creepy,'_ Tess said silently after several moments, a shiver running through her at the memory of the glowing structure she had hatched out of. She knew that she was not human, but seeing that irrefutable evidence, it would be the final nail in the coffin of her normality.

She didn't understand why Michael wanted to see them, why he seemed so interested in their alien past. She wished that they could pretend it didn't exist, and would have been perfectly happy to live in utter ignorance of their true identities. The only reason she even cared now, was that ignorance could hurt her family if they really did still have enemies.

_'We might find something important, and I'll be there the whole time,' _Liz replied, tilting her head to meet Tess's gazeand smiling. _'You can even wait outside if you want.'_

"Like you had to do when Grandma dragged us to the Wax museum?" Tess asked teasingly, her eyes sparkling as Liz pouted.

"Now that place is creepy," Liz said with a shudder, "All those eyes and smiles…" She rubbed her arms and glared at her sister. "Thanks for reminding me, now I'll have nightmares."

"Better than more alien dreams," Tess muttered, losing her brief moment of cheer, and Liz shot her an understanding, but disagreeing look.

She didn't say anything though, just stood and slid back through the window into their bedroom. "Come on, we have school and work tomorrow. Michael's not the only one who needs his beauty sleep."

Tess rolled her eyes, but followed, silently hoping that her sister had neither nightmares nor alien dreams, any time soon.

x

Michael reached under his bed and pulled out his old sketchbooks, looking for one in particular. It was from when they were still living with Hank and he had drawn a series of faces, faces not quite human, faces he had never seen before, at least not in this life.

He finally unearthed the one he was looking for, a homemade sketchbook that Lyn had created before they had jobs and money to buy such things. He flipped through it and stopped at a page a quarter of the way in, a page covered in a dark morass of chaotic black and red shapes, an oddly symmetrical face peering out from the angry lines.

Just like when he had first drawn it, it struck an uneasy chord, disturbing him with teasing familiarity. _Rath. _The name fit the face, tingled in the back of his head with the same uncomfortable pressure as the picture.

Was this proof that somehow, some part of him, had known about their past all along? He didn't know if that was reassuring, or even less comforting than complete ignorance. The picture was dark, angry, and not just because that was how he had felt when living with Hank. They had been killed in their past lives, why? A palace coup? A war?

Not knowing was frustrating the hell out of him, but he couldn't deny a sliver of fear that he wouldn't like the answers when they found them.


	6. Chapter Six: Facing Reality

**A/N: **So this is a good time to mention that my timeline for the show events that I am including is completely wonky, not that the original wasn't for those like me who have tried to make sense of it, lol. So, in the show, Topolsky showed up the next day, in fact several episodes happened all in a row there. While I will be including a good chunk of canon season one events, they will not happen in the same order, the same timeframe, or in the same way, so, if it doesn't match up, you can safely assume it's intentional and there's no need to yell at me about canon/continuity (Believe me, I have _insanely_ detailed timelines and episode facts worked up). Also the lyrics below are to the song No Such Thing by John Mayer and I don't own them.

* * *

><p><em>"Welcome to the real world,"<em>

_She said to me condescendingly_

_Take a seat_

_Take your life_

_Plot it out in black and white_

_**Chapter Six: Facing Reality**_

_September 25th, 1999_

_September 25__th__, I'm Liz Parker and the stars have never scared me so much. I've put on a brave front for Tess, pretending that I am all for finding whatever answers we can, but the truth is, I'm terrified. I'm terrified that those answers are going to take my sister away from me, that those answers are going to tear apart our family again, so soon after we've finally put it back together._

"What are you writing, Parker?" Michael asked quietly, the sound not carrying past the back of the jeep.

Liz's head jerked up in surprise and she blinked, pulling herself out of her inner monologue and into the present. She had given up her spot in the Jetta to Raelyn and offered to ride in the jeep, another way to build trust in the group. Max had looked disappointed when she climbed into the back, but Isabel had finally stopped glaring at her and she had no intention of aggravating the statuesque blonde again by stealing the seat she'd been pointedly eyeing.

Michael was still staring at her, eyes intent, and she flushed. "My journal."

He raised one eyebrow, lips twitching into a smirk that both irritated and attracted her. "I didn't picture you as the diary type, Parker."

She calmly raised one eyebrow back at him. "I think you'd be surprised by how many things you don't know about me, Michael." She curled her lips into her own smirk, enjoying the startled but pleased twinkle that had appeared in his eyes. "And as for my journal? You should be grateful I am that type, since planning our fieldtrip was a lot easier thanks to the fact that I record every dream."

He frowned and opened his mouth, but she shook her head before he could speak. "I'm not stupid enough to leave them out in plain sight." She wiggled her fingers at him. "I do have certain advantages when it comes to hiding spots."

He chuckled and leaned his head back on the seat. "Good to know."

They settled back into a comfortable silence and Liz tore her gaze away from his profile, biting her lip as she began to write in her journal again.

_I promised Kyle, and myself, that I wouldn't be pursuing a relationship with anyone for a while. I meant that promise, but something about Michael makes me want to erase that damnable smirk of his by kissing him senseless. _

She blushed, seeing her desires written out in black and white, and closed her journal, tucking it, and the pen, away in her backpack and vowing to not let it out of her sight until she was safely back at home.

Staring out the window, she watched the desert roll by, the familiar vistas of home tainted with new and unfamiliar fears. Her family had lived here for generations; they had been in Roswell since before the Crash, a crash she had always laughed at and used to boost tips, even after Tess joined their family. The Crash had never seemed real to her, never seemed like a piece of true history, but instead just a hoax that kept her family in business. Before the dreams started, it hadn't seemed possible that Tess was a part of _the_ Crash; now, well, Roswell didn't seem so entertaining and kitschy; now it seemed morbid, and not a little terrifying.

"Here," she said suddenly, a rock formation jumping out at her. "Turn right here."

The jeep turned and Maria's Jetta followed, both vehicles coming to a stop when the terrain grew too rough for the small car to continue. They all piled out onto the hot sand, falling naturally into their usual groups; the Evans, Michael and Raelyn, Liz and Tess, Alex and Maria.

"Does that," Liz nodded towards the large rock formation, "Look familiar to any of you?"

"Yes," Max said, and Isabel nodded as they all turned to face the imposing, natural stone structure, Liz hands tightening on her arms as her own tension, and her sister's, heightened with a wordless feeling of dread and discovery.

There was silence for a moment and then Michael rolled his eyes, "What are we waiting for? Let's go."

"We're hiking?" Maria exclaimed. "Are you kidding me?"

"What did you think we were doing Maria?" Tess asked, raising one eyebrow. "Picnicking?"

"No, I just didn't think we'd be mountain climbing," the blonde muttered petulantly, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring across the desert.

"That is not a mountain Maria; not even close," Alex teased good-naturedly as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She huffed and Liz and Tess exchanged grins.

"Whatever. I'm going; whoever feels like following, feel free," Michael interrupted sarcastically, turning on his heel and striding away, the red desert dirt staining his Docs.

His sister followed first, Alex close on her heels as he abandoned Maria, earning another huff. Max was next, after a lingering glance at Liz, and Isabel also huffed with irritation before following too. Liz exchanged a glance with Tess, then linked arms with her sister and Maria and tugged them along, ignoring Tess's silent, and Maria's definitely not silent, complaints.

The trek itself was mostly quiet, just the sound of feet hitting dirt and rock, and the occasional muttered comment or curse. Liz found herself glad, that while no athlete, she was in shape thanks to working nearly full-time in the diner and being fairly active outside of work and school. This wasn't exactly a typical afternoon outing, and by the time they were halfway to the pile of rock, she was panting and wishing they'd brought more water bottles.

When they reached and climbed up to their destination, all strung along the path thanks to the lack of room, she grabbed Tess's hand and squeezed past Alex and Lyn to see Michael, Max, and Isabel staring a blank rock wall, frowning. "I could have sworn there was an opening here," Michael muttered, reaching up to scratch his eyebrow.

"It was dark, and it's still fuzzy, but I remember coming out of here," Max agreed, tapping his fingers against the cliff face.

"Well caves don't disappear, so there must be some way to get i,." Liz said reasonably, her eyes scanning along the stone, looking for cracks or any sort of anomaly.

After a moment, Tess stepped hesitantly forward, lifting her arm and placing her palm flat against the rock surface, right next to where Michael was standing. A glowing handprint appeared, making all of them gasp when, with a soft groaning noise that made Liz jump, the wall slid open.

Her sister had trusted her instincts; that made her happy, although worried over what other instincts might be coming to the fore. But finding the cave, well, to be honest, she'd been half-hoping that they would fail, no matter how much they needed to learn everything they could.

Michael climbed inside the oddly shaped opening first, but the others quickly followed, more nervous about being left alone outside, than about whatever was to be found inside the dark cave. Something in the cave glowed with a pale green and blue light, and Liz shivered as the cool air hit her skin, hoping that coming here hadn't been a mistake. The walls were dusty and cobwebbed, but clearly carved with precision; this was not a natural opening, or if it had been once, it had been shaped and expanded by whomever left them there.

Against the back wall, displayed in an obvious position of prominence surrounded by intricate carvings, were the four pods; two on top, two on bottom, all still radiating light despite their withered condition. Tess walked slowly towards the lower left pod, her hand hovering over it for a moment before dropping back to her side, her back stiff with tension.

Liz quickly joined her and slipped an arm around her shoulders, squeezing gently. Tess leaned in to her sister and shot her a grateful glance, wordlessly expressing her discomfort since it was no longer safe to express it silently. Here was the irrefutable evidence of just how not normal, how inhuman, she really was. She wanted to set the pods on fire and watch them burn into ash, then walk away and pretend they didn't exist, that she really had no memory before finding Liz and the Parkers on that road.

She saw the same feelings reflected in Isabel's dark brown eyes and suddenly felt a sense of kinship with the icy blonde. No one could ever replace Liz or Maria, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad to bond with the others; at least with Isabel, who seemed the least inclined of the four to explore their alien roots, something that automatically endeared her to Tess.

Michael, on the other hand, was eyeing the pods with something akin to awe, and she recognized in him the same need for answers that she recognized in her sister, although she suspected their motivations were quite different. Liz wanted answers to protect Tess. Michael, she didn't know why he wanted answers, since it wasn't a mindset she shared herself, and only her refusal to be as deep in denial as Max seemed to be had driven her to be this proactive.

Squeezing Liz's hand, she pulled away from her comforting embrace, and turned away from the pods, staring around the rest of the cave. There didn't seem to be any other rooms, no branching passages other than the short narrower walkway that led from the entrance to the chamber they were standing in. The walls were carved, but not with symbols, or anything that looked decorative or meaningful. In short, it was a dark, dank, cave.

Lips twitching as she managed to resurrect her sense of humor, she caught Isabel's eye and grinned. "Well, clearly they're not very advanced in some ways."

The beautiful blonde chuckled and nodded, stepping closer to her and crossing her arms over her chest as she surveyed the area with an experienced and disparaging eye. "They could definitely use some tips on interior design."

Michael rolled his eyes, looking up from his pod to shoot the two of them a disgusted glance. "Considering their ability to resurrect the dead, I think they can decorate however the hell they want."

The two blondes exchanged identical, exasperated looks, sighing and shaking their heads in commiseration over just how much boys did not understand, making Liz smile to see her sister bonding with Isabel, before her gaze was drawn to Maria, who was huffing impatiently as she hovered by the cave entrance. "So can we go? Because as fascinating as this discussion of alien décor is, I'm mostly getting a freaky vibe and I don't think candles or cushions will help that much."

Alex, still standing next to Raelyn, cocked his head to the side as he looked the cave over. "I don't know; some of those glow in the dark stars might liven the place up."

Michael glared at both of them while Maria snickered and Liz hid her own amused reaction. "Do you mind? This is my heritage you're talking about."

Her male best friend looked abashed, but Maria glared right back, muttering something under her breath that Liz was rather glad none of them could hear. Max, who had been silent so far, peered inside of his pod, frowning slightly. "How are they powered? How did they stay powered for all of these years?"

Alex coughed softly, wincing when Michael shot him another sharp look, a look that only intensified when Raelyn took his hand, frowning at her brother. "Uh, just curious, how do you know you were in the '47 crash? I mean, couldn't there have been another ship later?"

Michael blinked, exchanging a glance with Max, who looked equally startled. "I don't know." Max said slowly, giving a sheepish shrug. "I guess we always just assumed."

Maria's mutter was louder that time, the proverb about assuming sounding a tad vicious, and Liz quickly walked over to her and took her arm, squeezing gently and stating diplomatically. "Well, I guess we still have more questions than answers."

Her sister snorted, exchanging another amused glance with Isabel before grinning at Liz. "Isn't that kind of our motto?"

Even Michael cracked a faint smile at that one, the light dancing in his eyes making Liz's stomach flutter, but it was his sister who spoke next. "Whatever powers them is strong, very strong." She shivered and stepped closer to Alex who tightened his grip on her hand and pointedly ignored her brother. "I can feel it humming, can't you guys?"

Liz frowned, meeting her sister's suddenly serious blue eyes as she tuned out the distractions of the others, realizing that she did feel an energy in the cave that wasn't coming from any of them, and that was distinctly stronger by the pods. "I feel it," she said softly, and Tess nodded, although she was frowning as if it had been hard to detect. The other three hybrids nodded too, equally hesitant and Liz pursed her lips, studying the redhead holding her best friend's hand as she wondered again what made them so different, so apparently more in tune with certain things than the actual aliens. It made no sense and she didn't like things that made no sense.

"That's great, humming alien energy," Maria said sarcastically, breaking the rising tension. "I repeat, can we _go_?"

There was a hint of hysteria in her tone, and Liz squeezed her arm again. "I think we've seen everything, and we can always come back later. I still have a lit paper to write this weekend, and I know I'm not the only one."

Michael snorted and smirked at her, eyes glinting devilishly. "I already finished my paper, but for those who aren't as prepared, I suppose we can cut the trip short."

Max clapped him on the back before Liz could snap off a retort, and winked at her. "So that means you're up for another round of me kicking your ass at Mario Kart?"

Liz grinned at him, only a little hesitantly thanks to the awkwardness that still existed between them, and Michael rolled his eyes, slapping Max's back a little more forcefully. "I vote for me kicking your ass at Mortal Kombat instead."

"Yes!" Alex crowed, everyone looking at him in startled amusement. "Count me in, I need some guy time."

Tess, who, along with Isabel, had joined Liz and Maria by the cave entrance, looked at him with wide blue eyes, her bottom lip trembling. "Are we not enough for you anymore, Alex?"

"No, no," Alex said instantly, almost stumbling over his words in his haste as he stepped towards her, but then stopped because he clearly didn't want to let go of Raelyn's hand. "That's not what I meant."

Tess managed to keep it up for another moment before cracking, giggles escaping first her, then Liz and Maria as Alex started to pout before turning towards Michael and Max who were holding back grins – Max more successfully than Michael. "See? This is what I mean."

Liz exchanged a conspiratorial grin with her sister, before raising a questioning eyebrow, communicating in that silent way that wasn't alien, just years of knowing each other. Tess nodded after a moment and Liz smiled, tilting her head so she could see Isabel and Raelyn. "Well, if the boys are going to hang out, would you two like to come to the Crashdown with us? Milkshakes on the house."

The girls exchanged glances before both nodding, and Alex turned back to them with a grin, hurt mood already forgotten. "Aww, look at that, all my girls getting along."

"Your girls?" Michael asked, a warning note in his voice as he stared pointedly at Alex and Lyn's joined hands.

Alex swallowed and opened his mouth to stammer out a reply, but Raelyn beat him to the punch, stepping closer to the lanky boy and shooting her brother an arch look. "Well I don't know about the others, but I don't mind being Alex's girl."

Michael grunted irritably while Alex beamed, the sappy grin on his face making Liz exchange a delighted look with her sister; at least one of them might end up happy. "You two are adorable, and I'm all for irritating grumpy over there, but weren't we leaving?" Maria asked impatiently, tugging on Liz's hand. Liz chuckled, her grin widening at the look on Michael's face, and she let Maria pull her out of the cave, the others following close behind.

Maybe they _could_ pull off this group togetherness thing.

x

Tess stared at her hands, avoiding looking up and catching the gaze of either girl sitting on the other side of the booth. Inviting Raelyn and Isabel over for milkshakes had seemed both harmless and a good idea at the caves, when they were finally starting to feel a connection that broke through the awkward, unusual circumstances that brought them together. But, the ride back from the desert, and then to drop the boys off at Michael's apartment, had brought that distance back, and the silence had grown thick and awkward once more.

Liz and Maria were off making and fetching said milkshakes, so she'd been unfairly abandoned. In her opinion, Liz should have stayed, at least she knew Raelyn, or had once, but Liz had silently argued her into acquiescence, pointing out that she and Isabel had a unique connection, past, present, and future, and that she should be trying to bond with the other girl. She hated it when Liz was right. "So, did you really go on a date with Tommy Hoeig?" she asked hesitantly, finally looking up and meeting Isabel's cool brown gaze.

The blonde wrinkled her nose, eyes glinting with sudden humor, and nodded while Raelyn giggled softly. "Yes, it was horrific, worst five hours of my life."

"Ugh, why would you even agree to go out with that pig? You know he looked up my skirt all the way back in fourth grade?" Maria exclaimed as she and Liz returned to the table bearing shakes for all of them.

"Well, as I recall you made him pay for that, a stunt that makes a lot more sense now," Isabel stated dryly, her lips twitching into a smile as her gaze drifted from Maria to Liz and Tess, both blushing slightly as they squeezed together in the booth. "Anyways, I was trying to make a point to my brothers about it being okay for us to date, which meant I had to go through with it and sadly he was the first one to ask after the argument." Her voice was disgusted, and the other girls chuckled as she paused to take a delicate sip from her strawberry shake, and then gave Liz a surprised and pleased smile when she discovered that Tabasco had already been added.

Liz smiled back at her and winked, gently tipping her own tabasco-laced vanilla shake in Isabel's direction before asking curiously. "Did you really slap him? Kyle said he tried to deny it, but that he swore he could still see the imprint of your hand on his cheek at the party later that night."

Isabel laughed, a genuinely happy sound that startled all of the girls but Raelyn, who was grinning widely. "Yes I did, he tried to grope me on my front porch. Which, since Max and Michael were waiting with Lyn inside, was a very bad idea. I slapped him to save his life."

"Oh, the boys still got their licks in," the redhead said with a small giggle, earning a raised eyebrow from Isabel. "I know for a fact that Michael gave him a nice lingering rash, and Max, he made sure Tommy got caught cheating in Mr. Seligman's class."

"So that's why he got detention!" Maria exclaimed, her green eyes widening with glee at this new piece of gossip. "That's brilliant, your brothers rock."

"Sometimes, and at other times they're the most annoying creatures on the planet," Isabel refuted while Raelyn shook her head loyally.

"I think they always rock."

"Even when Michael goes all overprotective caveman and interrogates or intimidates boys you like? Or Max thinks you're sick and tries to heal you when it's just cramps, and then does that red, stammering freak-out thing?"

Raelyn blushed, but nodded staunchly. "Even then." Isabel huffed and the redhead shot her a sly look. "After all they put up with you when you go all Christmas or Shopping Nazi on us; and with me when I make them pose for hours for pictures or pester them about homework."

The statuesque blonde rolled her eyes while the other girls cracked up, the last of the awkwardness disappearing. "Maria might need advice dealing on brothers soon, if her mom and the sheriff ever get married," Tess said, reaching around Liz to teasingly poke her friend in the side.

Maria huffed and pouted, clearly revving up to rant about the thought of having to share a house with Kyle, but the mention of the sheriff had dimmed the light in Isabel and Raelyn's eyes, and Liz's smile dropped too, all of their not so normal concerns coming rushing back. Feeling guilty for ruining the mood, Tess clasped her sister's hand and reached out with her other to gently touch Isabel's arm. "Hey, it'll be okay. They won't figure anything out, and even if they do, Liz is smart enough to get us out of anything, and your brother's a freaky genius like her, so we'll be fine."

Liz squeezed her hand back at those loyal words and Isabel gave her a shaky smile, hints of vulnerability shining through her perfect mask; a vulnerability Tess hadn't known existed before a few days ago, and despite the circumstances, one she found reassuring. It was nice to know that she and her sister weren't the only ones afraid of being discovered, and maybe between all of them, they could prevent the sheriff, or anyone else, from finding out the truth.

x

Maria was still smiling when she walked into her house later that night, still happily amazed at seeing a human side of the ice princess, even if she had been forced to suffer through that horribly creepy alien cave in order to have the chance. She stopped her trek down the hallway when she heard male voices, eyes narrowing as she turned towards the kitchen and saw the sheriff leaning against the counter, flirting with her mother as she cooked, and Kyle sitting at the kitchen table, snacking obnoxiously on some chips.

Four years of dating and she still wasn't used to seeing the sheriff and her mom all over each other like a bunch of hormonal teenagers. It was disturbing and annoying, and she briefly contemplated turning around and spending the night at Liz and Tess's. Until her wannabe stepbrother spotted her and waved, sporting a crumb filled grin, although his eyes weren't quite as cheerful as usual. Sighing dramatically, she walked into the room, ignoring Kyle, and giving her mother as genuine a smile as she could manage while she had the sheriff's lips attached to her cheek. So disgusting.

"There you are; it's almost time for dinner. We're having spaghetti," her mother chirped cheerfully, blushing and pulling away from the sheriff as she stirred the sauce.

Maria refrained from making a muttered comment about it being the sheriff's favorite, and that she was heartily sick of spaghetti. "I'll just go drop my stuff off in my room."

"Did you have fun hiking?" the sheriff asked, his smile friendly, but something in his eyes sending a chill down her spine as she wondered if Liz had been right, if he really would lock Tess up for just being what she was.

"Oh loads; I love hiking, it's a great chance to talk about girl stuff, like periods and boys without having to deal with anyone telling us to be quiet," she said quickly, channeling her inner babble and smiling brightly before fleeing the room as Kyle choked on a chip, staring at her in shocked disgust.

When she reached her room, she collapsed against the door, breathing heavily. Why, oh why, did her hippie mother have to pick _him _to date? How was she supposed to survive dinner? "Pull yourself together," she muttered, glaring at her reflection in the mirror on the wall. "Tess and Liz are counting you. You can do this."

Grimacing at the frazzled blonde staring back at her she sighed, she was so doomed.


	7. Chapter Seven: Paranoia

**A/N: **The lyrics below are to the song Wild Place by Glass Pear and I don't own them, nor do I own any recognizable pieces of dialogue from the show. Also, I know roll is usually alphabetical, but let's pretend it's not, just this once, kay? Oh, and one more thing, I'm not rewriting most of the scenes involving the sheriff and the FBI, because I have nothing to add, so just assume that's all still going on in the background, anything important that's new, or that's being removed, will be mentioned in the story.

**A/N2:** I am SO sorry for the long wait and I am so grateful for your patience and feedback. Rest assured, the next chapter will be up soon. :D

* * *

><p><em>Who can you trust in this place?<em>

_In whom can I put my faith?_

_If you're real then show me now_

_Who you are  
><em>

_**Chapter Seven: Paranoia**_

_September 26th, 1999_

"You've been dodging us all week Alex, now fess up, how did you find out about the others?" Tess asked commandingly, pushing the lanky boy down onto her bed next to Maria and crossing her arms over her chest, maintaining a stern frown while Liz stood beside her and tried not to giggle.

Alex shifted uncomfortably, brushing Maria's poking fingers away as he frowned up at them. "It's not really my story to tell."

Maria huffed and Tess opened her mouth to speak again, but Liz gave her hand a warning squeeze and smiled at him, knowing that they couldn't complain about him being the good person he was. "So just tell us what you can."

He gave her a grateful grin and patted the bed, her and Tess joining him and Maria in a big puppy pile like they used to do when they were little, although now they had to be more careful about where they put certain body parts. "So, Raelyn's and Michael's foster father wasn't very nice," he said after everyone got comfortable, voice hesitant and warning against pressing for details.

"I was worried about her so I went to visit and I saw," he paused and Liz squeezed his shoulder, exchanging a glance with Tess that expressed both her concern for Raelyn and Michael, and how glad she was that Tess had never been in a situation that would make Alex react like this. "Well I saw him using his powers so they told me the truth. That's when they ended up moving out and getting emancipated, which is why I wasn't around much this summer."

"So when are you going to hit that?" Maria asked bluntly after a few moments of silence, making Tess and Liz giggle while Alex gave her an affronted glare, then narrowed his eyes and grinned evilly, wiggling his fingers at her threateningly until she raised her hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I won't mock the puppy love anymore."

Alex just looked at her in knowing amusement and then darted in, tickling fiercely while she squealed and flailed until she fell off the bed with a thump, Liz and Tess laughing so hard they could barely breathe as they clutched at each other. Alex pretended to dust his hands off, and gave the blonde now lying on the carpet and pouting a smug smirk. "You will always lose to the tickle monster, Maria, always."

x

Liz sat between Raelyn and Vicky Delaney in Geometry, smiling at the redhead and doing her best to ignore the hulking presence of her brother in the next row back, along with Max who was sitting next to him, both of them looking at her with expressions she didn't feel like deciphering. "That's not Mr. Singer," Raelyn murmured, and Liz quickly tilted her head to the front of the class room to see a pretty blonde woman walking in and moving to stand behind the desk.

"Hello everyone. I'm Kathleen Topolsky. I'll be substituting for Mr. Singer who's out sick for a couple days," she stated perkily, blue eyes sparkling.

"I hope he's seriously ill," Tommy Hoeig muttered and Liz rolled her eyes, exchanging an amused glance with Raelyn before looking back at Topolsky, who was smiling at them with the kind of faux, welcoming cheer that most substitutes tried at first. "So, the infamous Roswell, New Mexico. Before we get started, let me just ask: Does anyone here actually believe in aliens?"

Everyone managed a laugh, some more genuine than others, used to those sort of jokes given their hometown, and Liz resisted the urge to glance at Raelyn, or respond to the two intense gazes she could feel burning into the back of her skull. She could count on one hand the number of new teachers who hadn't mentioned the local legends, she knew it was stupid to be paranoid, and she also knew that trying not to be was a lost cause.

"Okay, let's take roll. Uh…Hoeig."

"Here," Tommy grunted, leering at the older woman who just looked back down at her paper without any response, earning a small smile from Liz.

"Nicholas."

"Here," Raelyn said softly, meeting the woman's gaze with a hesitant smile, one that was returned with a full on beam.

"Evans."

"Here," Max responded, earning another beam as Liz fought back a small chuckle, paranoia starting to dissipate. It was always entertaining when they tried to be your friend.

"Guerin."

"Here," Michael said in a bored tone, receiving an equally bright smile and making it harder for Liz to conceal her amusement, amusement she had a feeling Michael shared.

"Parker."

"Here," She chirped, preemptively grinning at the woman. But instead of grinning back at her, Topolsky's head cocked slightly to the side and her smile was definitively less cheery, a flash of something in her eyes that Liz almost wanted to call calculation, resurrecting her dying, unfounded suspicions. She hated feeling like that, hated the stress that was 99% likely to be pointless, but that she knew it would bother her until either the substitute was gone, or she found out more about her.

In the hallway, after class was dismissed, Liz linked arms with Raelyn, knowing the two boys would follow, and walked until they were around the corner and Topolsky wouldn't be able to see them through the propped open classroom door. "She's more than just a substitute," Michael growled softly as soon as she stopped, conveniently next to her locker so they had an excuse to pause amidst the eddying students.

"I'm sure it was nothing, Michael," Max said placatingly, looking a little concerned and surprised when Liz didn't voice her agreement and Raelyn shook her head.

"Her emotions went crazy when she called on the four of us, the most with you and Liz," the redhead said quietly, dropping Liz's arm and taking her brother's instead as she looked at all three of them with worried eyes. "I didn't get any specific thoughts, but, I don't trust her."

Tess and Isabel walked up, their smiles disappearing as they saw the serious looks the four of them were sporting and Liz closed her locker. "We can talk after school," she said firmly, not needing to add that it wasn't safe to talk there. Giving the other four teens a small smile, she slipped her arm through her sister's and headed for their next class, filling Tess in mentally and no longer fighting her inner conspiracy theorist.

It wasn't paranoia if they really were out to get you.

x

Rolling her shoulders, which were tight with tension, Liz wove her way down the busy hallway after lunch, heading for her next to last class of the day and not looking forward to the long shift afterwards. Looking up, she saw Kyle walking towards her, and knew the instant he noticed her by the way his mouth tightened and his eyes flickered before looking away. She bit her lip, wishing that there was something she could say and knowing there wasn't any point, because she couldn't explain, not really.

Turning her head away from his retreating figure with a sigh, she spotted a head of blonde hair walking quickly down the next hallway and her eyes narrowed as she picked up her own pace, 'accidentally' colliding with the woman as she passed. "Oh my gosh," she exclaimed, eyes widening with innocent shock. "I'm so sorry."

"Parker, Liz," Topolsky said with a tight smile, one Liz might have thought was genuine if she didn't have other senses that were making the back of her neck prickle.

"Yeah," she responded with a bright smile, not seeing any flicker in the woman's blue eyes that would indicate she wasn't buying Liz's act.

"Photographic memory," the blonde stated, smile widening slightly and Liz's stomach tightened.

"Wow, that's really interesting. I've never met anyone with a photographic memory before," she replied with what she hoped was a fascinated grin, lying through her teeth since she knew six, including herself; one of the perks of alien heritage or enhancement.

The woman kept smiling, bending down to reach for her files as she responded. "Helps in my line of work."

Liz grimaced while her face was turned away, and then bent down to help her pick up the scattered papers. "Here, let me help you with that," she stated perkily as she picked up the two files closest to her, quickly noting the names as those of Michael and Raelyn, making her heart pound in her chest at the further confirmation of their suspicions.

Topolsky took the files from her with a warm smile, Liz wondering if the slight strain she detected was just her imagination as she smiled back. "Thank you."

Liz nodded and said with as much cheer as she could muster. "See you in class." Then she straightened her backpack and turned and walked away, mind whirring as the relatively peaceful weekend seemed to get farther and farther away. They needed to get some actual answers soon or she was going to develop a twitch.

x

"Why just Michael and Raelyn's files?" Alex asked with a frown, gaze darting protectively to the redhead sitting on the cushion of the couch closest to the arm he was perched on.

Liz, who was sitting on the other end of the couch adjusting her antennae, shrugged. "There might have been more, those were just the ones on top that I could see."

Michael growled softly from his place against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest as he scowled at some distant spot in the air. "I don't like it, why is she so interested us? There is only one thing the four of us have in common. We need to find out what she knows, and why she's here."

"No shit, Sherlock," Tess snapped out flippantly from where she was sitting between Liz and Raelyn on the couch, her fingers so tense on the headband she was clutching in her lap that one of the deely-boppers was in danger of popping off.

Michael's glare shifted to her and Liz sighed, reaching out and snagging the headband out of her sister's hands and gently positioning it on her head. "We'll have to coordinate, create a distraction so that one or two of us can get into the classroom when she's not there and see what we can find, or maybe even her car," she said quietly when she was done, squeezing Tess's hand.

"Whose car are we breaking into?" Maria asked cheerfully as she swanned into the back room, already in uniform, and headed for her locker to grab her apron.

"The substitute's, Miss Topolsky, and keep it down would you?" Alex asked, his smile gentling his words as he flicked a glance in Michael's direction, who had tensed at the blonde's careless words.

Maria rolled her eyes, but nodded, and a small amount of tension went out of the room. Raelyn shifted, her eyes also on her brother. "I need to get to work." Tilting her head towards the lanky boy sitting next to her she smiled up at him. "Walk me?"

"It would be my pleasure," Alex stated grandly, leaping to his feet and bowing in her direction as he held out a hand to help her up. All the girls giggled while Michael's lips twitched into a frown again as he stared at the other boy with laser like intensity, only the knowledge that he needed to talk to Liz keeping him from following the two out of the room; he didn't think that Alex was anything like Nick, he might even admit to grudgingly liking the other boy, but that didn't mean he was at all happy about the way his sister looked at him.

"Where are Max and Isabel?" Liz asked him quizzically after Alex and his sister had disappeared through the backdoor, Maria following close behind to start her shift while the two Parker sisters hung behind. "I thought they were going to meet us here too."

"Their mom made them come straight home for school; apparently they're driving to Clovis for some kind of dinner," Michael grunted, repressing a surge of irritation, one with too complex originating motives for him to feel comfortable deciphering it. Shifting his weight awkwardly, he reached up to scratch his eyebrow and lifted his eyes to hers, forcing his next words past his tightening throat. "Uh, I was, do you guys have any job openings here?" The look of surprised concern on her face made him look away again and shrugging, he muttered. "Not getting enough hours at the convenience store."

"Yeah, we always have server openings, but," she paused and winked at him, loosening some of the tension in his shoulders. "I don't think that exactly suits your temperament." Tess snorted, once more paying attention to the conversation, and Liz shot her a quelling look before smiling at him again. "We have an opening for an entry level cook, no experience needed other than a general familiarity with a kitchen, which I'm sure you have. I'll give you an app to fill out and you can interview with dad this afternoon, if that's okay?"

He nodded, hiding his astonishment at how helpful and practical she was being, not at all what he'd pessimistically expected when he decided to just bite the damn bullet and ask, like he'd been thinking about all the past week. His other job wasn't working out, and working here would be convenient for more than one reason, not the least of which being that three members of their unwilling secret club already worked there, two of whom were related to management, meaning that emergencies could be more easily covered up for. But he hadn't expected her to be so cheerful about the possibility of being stuck with him more than she already was.

"Great!" the brunette chirped, rising to her feet and dragging her sister along with her. "I'll be back with the app in a minute, you can wait here while you fill it out and I'll see when dad's available; he doesn't have any shipments today so it should be soon."

"Thanks," Michael managed to reply, although he didn't return her smile with his usual smirk, still feeling off balance; she kept smiling anyways and disappeared through the swinging doors, Tess close behind, and he slumped against the wall. Maybe all this crap would have some unexpected benefits.

x

"I can't believe your dad hired him!" Maria exclaimed as the three girls changed back into their regular clothes later that evening. "He's just so, ugh. If any of them are going to work here, it should be Max, we need some eye candy and it is in short supply. Or maybe Isabel, she's surprisingly cool."

Liz rolled her eyes, exchanging an exasperated and affectionate glance with her sister over their friend's head. "I agree, Isabel is surprisingly cool, but you need to relax on the Michael front, because he is an employee now, and he is not half as bad as you're making him out to be."

Maria's head snapped towards her so fast that Liz was surprised she hadn't strained something, her best friend's green eyes narrowed and calculating, a triumphant smile curving her lips. "Ha! I knew you liked him." Liz glared at her and she laughed. "We'll get back to that later, your dad did say I could spend the night, right?" The brunette reluctantly nodded and Maria grinned. "Good, I just need to duck home, forgot my Spanish project and it's due tomorrow."

"I'm coming with you; you've had my jean skirt for ages and I want it back," Tess interjected, fluffing her curls out of the collar of her shirt as she turned to face the two of them.

Liz chuckled and Maria huffed, but then grinned and nodded. "Fair enough, come on then; if we go now, we won't run into Mister Law Man, and I won't be scarred by anymore parental PDA." Tess wrinkled her nose, but followed the other girl, ruffling Liz's hair as she passed and earning a punitive pinch that made her yelp and flip her sister off behind her back as they disappeared out the door.

x

The ride to Maria's house was quick and entertaining, mostly involving Maria belting it out to the radio while intermittently making bizarre suggestions on how to deal with Liz's crush on Michael. Amy was there when they arrived, and she gave Tess a big hug while Maria escaped to her bedroom, dragging the blonde into the kitchen. "I've missed you sweetie! You and Lizzy need to come over more often, we haven't had a girls' night in ages."

Tess giggled and nodded, about to promise to come over soon when she spotted the other resident of the kitchen, not the sheriff, but his son, staring at her morosely from the dining table. Butterflies instantly sprang to life in her stomach and she silently threatened them with a slow and painful death; it had been bad enough crushing on her sister's boyfriend while they were dating, but now that he was the devastated ex, it was even worse, and her hormones needed to get a clue, fast. "Hey Kyle," she murmured with a hesitant lift of her lips, leaning against the counter as Amy bustled off down the hall towards Maria, voice raised and touting the importance of packing the proper toiletries.

"Hey," he replied with a weak smile, his usually smiling blue eyes looking clouded and distant. It made her hurt, both for him, obviously not understanding what had happened between he and Liz, and for her sister, who had never wanted to hurt him and who would be devastated herself if she ever realized how much he had cared – she knew Liz already felt guilty for agreeing to go out with him in the first place.

Romance sucked, at least teen romance, she decided with a grimace, her hand seeking out the closest thing on the counter, a metal thermos, and toying with it in an attempt to hide her nerves. She became suddenly grateful that Kyle wasn't paying much attention when her fingers reached the lid and she gasped, an image of the sheriff playing in her mind, holding the same thermos and hiding a key in the lid while men in black suits filed into his office. What the hell?

Darting a glance at Kyle and making sure he was still staring fixatedly at his hands, she unscrewed the lid as quietly as she could and palmed the key before screwing it back on, her heart in her throat the whole time, just waiting for the sheriff to walk in and demand to know what she was doing. He didn't appear and she let out a sigh of relief when she slipped the key into the pocket of her jeans, shooting one last worried look at Kyle before leaving the kitchen for the hallway. Maria was just leaving her bedroom, Spanish project in one hand and a very familiar skirt in the other and Tess grinned, relaxing further – the sooner they left, the better.

She didn't mention the key in the next few minutes it took to actually get out of the house, or on the ride back, letting the soothing sounds of Maria's babble wash over as she turned the flash over and over again in her mind. Had those men in suits been FBI? They looked like it, or at least the Hollywood version that she was familiar with, and what was so important about the key that the sheriff had hidden it? And, more importantly, what would he do when he found out it was gone? Taking it had been a spur of the moment decision, and one she didn't regret, yet, but the thought that she might come to chilled her deep inside. It made her wish for their days of relative innocence, before the dreams started, before the shooting, back when she could pretend she was a normal girl and almost believe it.

By the time they got back to the Crashdown, and had climbed to the steps to the bedroom she shared with Liz, what she had done was burning on her tongue, begging to be let out, and the moment the door closed behind them, she spoke, interrupting Maria and meeting her sister's knowing gaze. "I found something, something the sheriff thinks is important enough to hide from the FBI."

Maria gaped at her, but Liz just held her hand out, the connection they shared ensuring that she already knew. Tess pulled the key out of her pocket and placed it on her sister's palm, then gasped again as her sister saw a flash, a new flash, broadcast to her through their wide open bond. It was a picture of a dead body, a dead body from several decades ago that had a very familiar silver handprint on it. Normal and pretending and wishes were all gone, as dead as the body in the picture, and it made her want to scream.

Liz closed her hand over the key and stepped forward, using her other hand to pull Tess in for a hug. She didn't say anything, there wasn't anything to say, but just knowing that she wasn't alone, that she wasn't the only one afraid, helped Tess relax and hug her back until the urge to scream, and the one to cry, had faded. Her sister gave her one last squeeze and then turned to Maria. "Feel up for one more trip?"

x

Michael glared at his front door, gaze so intent it could have incinerated whoever stood knocking so vociferously on the other side. He glanced at Lyn, doing homework on the couch, and she looked puzzled but not worried by what she was sensing, so he reluctantly opened the door, glare fading into a grimace as he saw the Parker sisters with Maria in tow. "Can't get enough of me?" he drawled, one eyebrow raised curiously as he took in the tight expression on Liz's face, the fearful one on Tess's, and the confused one on Maria's.

Liz rolled her eyes at him as they walked into the apartment, and then turned to face him, one hand on her hip and the other wrapped around something he couldn't see. "Hardly, but we, Tess, found something. Something important," she replied, voice sarcastic at first before sobering, her gaze steady as she met his eyes and uncurled her fingers to reveal a small bronze key.

Frowning down at the small bit of metal, he shot her a doubtful look. "What, your diary key?"

"Can't you be serious!" Tess snapped, the fear edging her tone killing the angry retort on his tongue, her next words creating a leaden ball of dread in his stomach. "That key belongs to the sheriff, and he thought it was important enough to hide it from the FBI agents who went through his office today."

Liz laid a comforting hand on her sister's arm, never looking away from Michael. "Tess saw the FBI agents and the sheriff when she touched the key; I saw a dead body with a silver handprint on it, or rather, a picture of the dead body, from the fifties, an official crime scene photo." Her tone was grim and the words made Michael flinch internally, mind racing as he realized what it meant – that they weren't the only aliens on Earth, and that the government had proof of that long before Max shot Liz. "We wanted to find out if you saw anything new when you touched it, and Lyn too," she finished quietly, offering him the key.

He just stared at it for a moment, still processing the idea that another being like them was out there, or had been forty years ago, and that the FBI thought the sheriff knew something interesting enough to take things from his office. Gritting his teeth, he reached out and took the key, his fingers tingling where they had brushed against Liz's skin, a tingle lost to the immediate and disorienting flashes of a strangely geometric dome, too fast for him to make out any details.

Blinking, he shook his head, trying to summon the images back and was only able to recall colorful impressions, nothing easily identifiable. "I saw some kind of dome, in the desert, can't make out any details though."

Liz nodded slowly, bottom lip already being worried by her even white teeth. "Maybe it's a house, or a lab, or something else that the key unlocks." Turning slightly so that she could see Raelyn, watching them silently from the couch, she smiled crookedly. "Willing to give it a try?"

To her and Michael's surprise, Raelyn immediately shook her head, red curls shifting and eyes a fearful dark blue as she shivered. "No, it feels, it feels like death, even from here. I don't want to touch it."

Michael frowned and handed Liz the key back before striding over to the couch and sitting down next to his sister, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and worrying at the tension he could feel vibrating through her as she burrowed into him. "You don't have to, we'll let the others look tomorrow," he stated firmly, tone brooking no disagreement, and Liz nodded, concern shading her face as she looked at the two of them, still holding her sister's arm, who looked almost as shaken as Raelyn, Maria huddling almost forgotten next to them, still looking confused and afraid.

"We'll have a lot to talk about tomorrow." The brunette said softly, reaching out to take her best friend's hand, all five teens feeling the weight of ominous events swirling out of their control.


	8. Chapter 8: Looking Back into the Future

**A/N:** The lyrics below are to the song How You See The World by Coldplay and some parts of this chapter are taken from various Roswell episodes.

* * *

><p><em>There's so much to be scared of<em>

_And not much to make sense of_

_Are you running in a circle?_

_You can't be too careful_

_And you can't relate it_

_Cause it's complicated_

_Oh you're gonna get it right sometime_

_**Chapter Eight: Looking Back into the Future**_

_October 14__th__, 1999_

"What will the future bring? In ancient times man looked to the heavens to answer this question. Today, our methods are a little more scientific, more personal. What will the future bring for you? As the millennium nears, all eyes are on you. There are so many opportunities out there for young people today, and I want to help you discover exactly what's right for you. Because the most important ingredient for success is always preparation. You can't become something until you can dream it first. What will the future bring for you?"

Kathleen Topolsky, their supposed new guidance counselor, smiled warmly at them all as she clicked to the next slide, making Liz roll her eyes while Maria muttered quietly from the other side of Tess, gesturing towards their classmates. "Let me make it easy for her – Tasty Freeze, Denny's, Gas World, Prison."

Tess snorted and Liz bit back a chuckle, eyes intent as she stared at the peppy blonde at the front of the room, darkly wondering if their future involved a laboratory or a grave thanks to the woman she still didn't trust, her fascination with them not explained by her new duties, not to Liz's satisfaction.

As if in answer to her brooding thoughts, the counselor continued speaking. "That's where I come in, getting to know your dreams. So over the next few days you will all be coming to my office for some interviews. A series of questions which will indicate where your strengths lie. And as you know, I'm new here, so most importantly this will give me a chance to find out who you are."

_'Now that sounds like a horrible idea.'_ A male voice stated sarcastically in Liz's mind, making her twitch slightly as she met Tess's equally startled gaze, and then shot a lopsided smile over her shoulder at Michael, sitting next to Raelyn, Alex, and Max a few rows over.

It really truly did sound like a horrible idea, a horrible idea that could have drastic consequences for all their futures. Besides, the woman was responsible for turning Liz's constant internal monologue into an overdramatic soap announcer, clearly she was evil.

x

Michael glared at the grill, wishing that José, the cheerful but foul-mouthed cook, wasn't bustling around him so that he could use his powers to perfectly char broil the burgers without all this hassle. Growling under his breath, he swept the ruined, charred mess into the trash can and slapped another row of patties on the hot metal, carefully monitoring and flipping them until he finally produced the desired result, and was able to pass them onto the other cook with a relieved sigh.

Wiping at the sweat beading on his forehead, he glanced into the front of the restaurant, smirking as he saw Liz bending over a table to clean it and caught a nice glimpse of her long, golden legs. Then again, the job did have its perks.

The front door to the restaurant swung open and he felt his jaw go slack as Max walked in, wearing the glaringly yellow vest of a UFO center employee.

No fucking way.

Max was always getting on his ass for making 'spur of the moment, irrational decisions', and then he pulled a stunt like this? If he wanted more money to spend than the generous allowance already provided from the Evans, fine, but Michael was sure his friend would come to regret working at a place that showcased humans fear of and fascination with extraterrestrial life, and he knew a certain someone would be ruining Max's dreams for weeks over not telling them first.

Tess had moved to the door to seat him, and Michael chuckled as he saw the expression on her face, and then the flush on Max's as she made what must have been a biting comment; he did like that girl. After seating him, the blonde glanced at the clock, grabbed her sister, and guided her towards the back, making Michael check the time as well, and realize with a grin that his first shift was finally over. Ducking out of the kitchen with a cheerful wave at a suddenly scowling José, he entered the backroom just in time to hear the two girls discussing Max's choice of employment.

"Someone took the idea of hiding in plain sight a bit too far." Tess was muttering while Liz giggled. "He's going to hate himself during convention season." A swift smile crossed the blonde's face. "But oh the blackmail opportunities if we can get pictures of him in those ridiculous costumes Milton always makes his employees wear, it's a wonder the man can get anyone to work there."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Michael drawled, moving to his locker and smirking as the two girls looked over at him in surprise, clearly having not noticed his presence. "You should talk to Isabel, I'm pretty sure she has a blackmail photo album for her darling brother."

Both girls laughed out loud, momentary unease at his invasion of the room dispelled. "I knew I liked that girl." Tess commented with a grin, while Liz cocked her head to the side and eyed him with a glance that made Michael resist the urge to take a wary step back.

"So, does that mean Raelyn has a similar album for you? Or did Isabel take over those duties as well." The brunette asked pertly, her sister laughing again as Michael rolled his eyes, smirk never faltering.

"Sorry, Parker, but if such a thing exists, you'll never get to see it."

Liz raised one eyebrow challengingly, and then dragged her sister up the stairs to their home to change, reminding Michael of a certain something _he _wanted to get his hands on if he got the chance. He did trust the two girls, or mostly, but knowing how reticent he would be to fully disclose everything he knew in a situation like theirs, he wanted to make sure that they weren't hiding anything.

And that was the _only_ reason he wanted a look at that dream journal.

_October 15__th__, 1999_

"Why don't you start by telling me what your dream job would be?" The blonde woman asked, her blue eyes shining with sincerity and her voice just a shade too warmly interested to be believable.

Alex leaned back in his chair, smiling affably and wondering vaguely when he became so good at hiding his feelings, he, who used to be subjected to routine blush torture by his so-called friends because of his extreme inability to lie. Even the ever volatile Maria was better at deception than he used to be, but, sometime over the summer, after finding out about Rae and Michael, things had changed.

Maybe it was just the fact that the stakes finally mattered.

He'd been told not to trust this woman, who had an unhealthy interest in the people he cared about most, but he decided to answer this particular question truthfully, mostly because it was one he'd been considering a lot lately. "I think I want to be a social worker, help kids in the system."

Miss Topolsky looked surprised for a moment, before glancing down at her notes and jotting something down, her smile making him wary when she looked back up at him, although her words were benign. "That's a commendable aspiration, Alex."

He smiled back and hoped he hadn't revealed too much as he settled himself to answer the rest of the questions, and wondered how Rae would feel about his new career goals.

x

Straightening slightly, the blonde woman continued to smile, tapping her pen gently against the page in front of her. "And what do you actually see yourself doing in ten years?"

Maria rolled her eyes, tugging on a strand of her own dyed and shortened mop, wistfully wishing for her old blonde tresses which had been much prettier than this imposter's, before flippantly replying "Oh we could all be dead in ten years."

Her tone was disdainful, but inside she quaked, knowing just how right she was.

This woman, perky and positive and still stupid enough to think she could actually befriend the students, _scared_ Liz. Until this year, Maria had been sure that nothing other than wax figures or losing her family could scare her best friend, who always took care of killing spiders for her, Tess, and Alex, who scientifically dissected the flaws in horror movies, and saw the world around her through calm, rational eyes that Maria would never understand.

But this nosy, 'caring', blonde thing, scared her, scared all of them, and Maria hated it. It was bad enough having to be afraid of instead of just disgusted by her mother's boyfriend, but now she couldn't relax at school either. She _was_ glad that there were no more secrets, that Liz and Tess trusted her enough to tell her the truth, she really was, but they'd had years to adjust to having to lie and worry and protect each other, and Maria hadn't quite gotten the swing of things yet.

Her fingers twitched with the need to pull out of the ever present bottle of cedar oil from the pocket of her jeans, but she resisted, not wanting to show weakness. She might be afraid, but Maria Deluca _never_ backed down from a challenge, and no fake counselor bimbo was going to intimidate her. So she scoffed again as the Barbie look-alike continued to stare patiently at her, and pointedly examined her nails. _Keep on trying lady; you'll never crack this nut. You've got nothing on my mother when it comes to staring._

_x  
><em>

Kyle stared at the picture of happily playing children that the far too pretty counselor was holding up, only vaguely paying attention to her question. His dad had been acting strange lately, not the usual, all over Mrs. Deluca strange, but something else. He was distracted and paranoid, like when he got all wild eyed and angry about something missing from his thermos the other night, never explaining what, leaving Kyle to assume that his father was going nuts over one of his deputies stealing his soup.

The only thing he could compare it to was his father's experience with his grandfather, feeding his growing fear that along with disastrously failed marriages, insanity might be the family curse. Miss Topolsky cleared her throat and he plastered his cocky, varsity grin on his face and pointed at the kid in the middle of the picture, on top of the jungle gym. "King of the playground."

He _was_ on the varsity baseball, basketball, football, and wrestling teams (not always all at the same time), a nearly impossible feat that meant he walked on water in this school. So what if his father was going crazy and his girlfriend had dumped him, for vague reasons that only made him suspicious, he could have another girl by lunch if he wanted. _Riiight, cause there's so many other girls like Liz; save the pep talks for game days buddy._

Slouching deeper in his chair, Kyle resisted the urge to glare at the woman now animatedly discussing what his choice meant in regards to personality and future careers. He just needed a distraction. Vicky Delaney was single, and she was both hot and friendly, without having the disease factory reputation of a girl like Pam Troy. Or, if he wanted some vengeance in addition to his fun, he could go after a real beauty like Isabel Evans, who was conveniently related to one of the boys he suspected of stealing Liz away from him.

Damn it. She had dumped _him_. Why the hell did he feel guilty for just _thinking_ about dating someone else?

x

"I'd be the little girl still making a sand castle even though it's raining," Tess said quietly, her hands casually folded in her lap and her head tilted to the side as she coolly met the woman's gaze, wishing briefly that she had Raelyn's gift of reading emotions and the occasional thought, so that she would know what the counselor, or whatever she really was, was thinking and feeling.

Were they right? Was the woman still more than she seemed? Or was she just an overly dedicated school employee, worried about two children who were recently emancipated and another two possibly involved in a near-shooting? She knew Liz firmly believed in the former, and she had a sick feeling in her stomach that said her sister was probably right, but both her desire for them to be wrong, and her natural inclination to avoid paranoia as one of the balancers in their little group, made her consider the other option.

"Why do you say that?" Miss Topolsky queried curiously, a hint of calculation in her eyes, and Tess smiled, a not completely friendly expression.

"Because I won't let a little hard weather stop me when I want something."

The counselor observed her quietly for a moment before nodding consideringly, and Tess continued to smile, her eyes innocent but her lips curving into an expression Tommy Hoeig would have recognized as dangerous. If the woman _was_ more than she said she was, she needed to know that she wouldn't be able to mess with Tess's family so easily. Liz wasn't the only protective one, and Tess would do whatever it took to keep the ones she loved safe.

x

"What makes you think the world of science is right for you?" Topolsky leaned back in her chair as she asked the question, the expression in her eyes reminding Liz of her own when she was conducting an experiment, making her gut tighten as she strengthened her outward defenses.

"The world is an incredibly mysterious place," she stated, inwardly changing world to universe. "And science is a way of figuring it out, a way of approaching a problem or question and systematically finding an answer." She lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug and smiled winsomely. "It doesn't hold all the answers of course, and you must always maintain your perspective of the world outside of science, or you risk becoming someone who commits atrocities in the name of knowledge."

The woman's lips thinned ever so slightly, and Liz wondered if it was just her paranoid imagination as she continued. "I believe we need to find a balance, a way to ally scientific research and the betterment of humanity, without causing damage to the natural world, or other people, in the name of progress." She shrugged again, smiling wider. "It's ambitious, but my sister loves to point out that I'm a bit of an over-achiever."

"Sounds like you have a lot of plans," Topolsky stated neutrally, still maintaining her professional, empathetic smile.

"Planning is important," Liz replied, lips quirking down slightly in thought as she remembered years spent in Florida. "But plans should always be flexible."

The blonde nodded her agreement, eyes shadowed faintly. "That's a very mature response. I hope your plans work out as well as you want them too."

_What about yours?_ Liz wondered silently as the counselor moved on to the next question. _What__** are**__ your plans?_

_x  
><em>

"Are you having a hard time with something in your life right now, Max?"

The woman sounded so concerned and it made Max twitch internally. He hadn't considered her a danger initially, not wanting to give in to the paranoia that was so tempting, and so easy to become prey to with a life like theirs, but he knew better than to doubt Raelyn's abilities, not to mention how convinced Liz and Michael were even without that evidence. All of which meant that he couldn't relax in her presence, and had to over think his answers even more than usual.

"No, not at all."

"Because some adopted kids go through tough times around this age. You know, identity issues, things like that," the woman persisted, her eyes large and shining with good intent, making Max frown.

"My parents and my sister are all I need. Besides, what does this have to do with my career path?" he asked, his face assuming what Isabel called his puppy-dog expression as he turned her own tactics back on her.

"If I'm going to help you figure out what you're going to become, maybe we should talk about who you really are. Now, you're an excellent student. Are you thinking of college?"

"I've thought about it," he replied noncommittally, sighing internally as he saw the determined slant of her mouth and wondered what would get her to let it go, then smiling slightly as he picked the easiest answer. "Both of my parents are lawyers, and I find their work fascinating, especially in regards to individual rights, so maybe I'll study law."

x

"I was talking to your friend Max earlier about his adoption, and I was wondering if you have any questions about your past?"

Michael raised an eyebrow, pretty sure that she wasn't supposed to divulge another student's personal information like that. Which meant either that she was fishing for information for some other agenda, or that she really was an incompetent freak. Neither were very comforting thoughts.

"No," he replied shortly, his arms draped carelessly over the chair arms as he ignored his body's instinctive desire to cross them defensively. She remained silent, clearly expecting further elaboration, and he smirked. She could wait all day if she wanted. He was here because it was mandatory, and he couldn't afford marks on his record if they wanted to keep their state income, but that didn't mean he had to talk about anything other than the damn career profile.

"Sometimes it's hard to move forward with your future, Michael, until you can figure out your past," she finally stated, when it became clear that he had no intention of speaking again.

He snorted softly, wondering if a real counselor would be this cheesy. Of course he needed to know his past, it was the number one focus of his thoughts, but why on Earth would he discuss such a personal issue with a High School Guidance Counselor, even if he was a normal human?

Maintaining his smirk, he continued to stare at her, not bothering to comment, until she sighed and moved on to the next question. Maybe he could enjoy the interview after all.

x

"How are you handling your emancipation? Has it changed your plans for the future?"

Raelyn blinked, twisting her fingers together in her lap, part of her mind processing the blonde woman's question, while the rest was struggling to interpret her emotions and the few brief images she'd picked up from Topolsky's mind. The woman was definitely still overly interested in her, and she assumed, all of them, but while a little odd for a guidance counselor, none of the images she'd seen in her mind were overtly suspicious, or alien related.

"Um, not really. I really like history, and languages, so I'll probably study one of those. Maybe work for a museum, or even become a professor." She shrugged and gave the woman a half-smile, hiding her unease at the intense focus she could feel directed at her. "Being emancipated hasn't changed anything; I'll still need financial aid and scholarships to afford school, along with working. The only person who really matters to my future is my brother, and no matter what we do or where we go, I'll always have him."

"Family is definitely important. Have you ever wondered about your birth family? Where you came from before Roswell?"

The redhead frowned, fingers whitening as she tightened her grip on herself. She had no memories before waking up in a hospital and then being taken to the Orphanage. She didn't know what had happened to her family, or her, but assumed it was bad, and had never had any desire to learn exactly _how_ bad. Michael _was_ her family, and so were Isabel and Max, that was all she needed.

"No, my life is here, with Michael. I don't need to know my past to have a future."

The counselor smiled gently, and Raelyn's stomach churned. "Life doesn't always work out like that."

x

"How well do you think you know yourself?"

The hint of condescension in the blonde woman's voice made Isabel's hackles rise, her irritation already stoked by the tizzy the counselor's actions and emotions had sent her family in to, and she summoned her iciest demeanor, voice frigid. "Very well."

"Then you might be surprised by the results of your computer profile. Now you said in our first meeting that you wanted to be a super model?"

The condescension was still there, tainted by compassion, which aggravated Isabel even more. How dare this bottle blonde talk down to _her_? Raising one eyebrow disdainfully, she curved her lips into one of her favorite smiles. "You work with what you're given."

"That's quite a jet set career for someone who puts family first, craves stability and security, and leans towards care giving fields."

It took everything she had not to glare at the woman. Her empathetic big sister routine was a load of crap, and her naïve assumption that Isabel would have told her the truth to begin with was nothing short of insulting. Whoever she was, whatever she was really here for, the counselor needed to step up her game, or better yet, give it up entirely. "Well, I never trusted computers," she responded lightly, barely resisting a melodramatic hair flip to really sell the performance.

"Think about who you are, Isabel, and what's important in your life, and don't forget, there's nothing wrong with just wanting to be normal."

Normal, as if. Isabel Evans was never meant to be normal, mysterious alien origins or not, and this woman would learn just how superior she was if she proved to be a danger to her family.

_October 16__th__, 1999_

"Fuck," Max muttered, brow furrowing in concentration as he stared at the TV screen, making Michael chuckle as he caught the look on Alex's face at hearing the usually straight-laced boy curse. It had been strange the first time Alex had joined them for game night. While he had spent quite a bit of time in the apartment that summer, most of that had been spent with Lyn, not Michael. But despite Michael's unease with the idea of Alex and his sister ever dating, the other boy was funny, and very useful when it came to irritating Max, since he could kick both their asses at video games.

"Sorry to break it to you Maxie-boy, but this is one arena where muscles and soulful eyes will not win the day," Alex stated jauntily, grinning as Max swore again and glared at the screen.

"Not to interrupt Max's trouncing, but what the hell are you doing considering his soulful eyes?" Michael asked amusedly, leaning back in the recliner as he watched Max's increasingly futile attempts to turn the tables on the lankier boy.

Alex grimaced, his fingers deftly flying over the controller. "Curse of having three female best friends; I know far too much about the attractive and not so attractive attributes of all our male classmates."

Max opened his mouth, eyes darting between the TV where he was moments from death, and the boy responsible, but Alex shook his head firmly before he could speak. "Sorry, everything I know was told in confidence, you will not be getting any dirt from me on just _who_ thinks you have soulful eyes." Pushing two more buttons, he dropped the controller into his lap, grin widening. "Consider yourself owned."

Max stared sullenly at the KO on the screen and Alex tipped his head towards Michael. "Mind if I grab a drink?" Michael waved him towards the kitchen and accepted the controller from him as he passed, smirking evilly at Max who groaned and let his head thud back against the couch.

"Any chance of switching the game to Mario?" Michael continued to smirk and the other boy sighed. "Didn't think so."

The sounds of someone rummaging through the fridge could be heard and then, oddly, the sounds of flipping pages, making Michael pale as he realized that he'd left his sketchbook on the counter and racked his brain, trying to remember if there were any drawings in that particular book that he didn't want anyone to see. Moments later, Alex wandered back into the living room, holding a can of soda and the sketchbook, thankfully turned to a page showing a series of drawings of the dome he'd seen when he'd touched the key Tess had stolen from the Sheriff.

"Any luck figuring out what and where this is?" Alex asked, his blue eyes no longer radiating good humor. Michael shook his head and the other boy frowned, staring down at the page, as all three of them stopped enjoying the afternoon quite so much, and went back to worrying over everything they'd been trying to forget.


	9. Chapter Nine: Story of My Life

**A/N:** The lyrics below are to the song Clocks by Coldplay and some parts of this chapter are taken from various Roswell episodes.

_Confusion never stops_

_Closing walls and ticking clocks_

_Gonna come back and take you home_

_I could not stop that you know singing_

_Come out upon my seas_

_Cursed missed opportunities_

_**Chapter Nine: Story of My Life**_

_October 25__th__, 1999_

Michael's feet tangled and he barely caught himself before he hit the floor, cursing softly under his breath, and then holding it as he waited to see if anyone had heard the noise he made entering the room. There was no sound, an encouraging if expected sign, since the girls were at school and Jeff, as far as he knew, was down in the restaurant. Good, he didn't need witnesses to him ditching school, breaking and entering, and invading the twins' privacy.

Straightening, he scanned the room, noting the twin beds separated by a nightstand, one covered in a simple, dark red quilt, and the other in a whimsical, black and white patterned silk coverlet. The rest of the decorations and items in the room were equally mismatched, but somehow harmonious, not clashing like one would expect.

It perfectly suited the sisters and he could picture them spending time there, Liz at the desk, studying or writing, and Tess in the basket chair next to the bookshelf reading one of the ridiculous number of fairytale books or harassing her sister with the makeshift rubber band gun he could see sticking out from behind the cushion.

Shaking himself out of his distracted reverie, he reached out with his other senses for the tell tale tingle of her energy, and felt a pool of it below her bed. Quickly striding over, he got on his hands and knees and felt the floor beneath it; focusing his power, he pushed his hand through the floorboards and curled his fingers around the first thing he found, lifting it out. Before he could make sure that it was what he was looking for, he heard the apartment door open and cursed again.

Tucking the book into his jacket, he made for the window, leaving as quietly as he could manage and heading down the fire escape. He'd check on what he found later, it was time to get back to school before Raelyn or one of the others noticed him missing.

x

"Everybody had their secrets. There isn't a person alive today who's what they appear to be. Exposing these secrets is the job of the historian. Even the most normal of us has extraordinary qualities just waiting to be uncovered."

Liz heard Michael and Kyle snort from their respective seats while Tess and Maria exchanged rolled eyes. "Yes, I'm sure, Tommy Hoeig has all kinds of untapped potential," Isabel murmured sarcastically from behind her and Liz bit back a chuckle, not wanting to draw the teacher's attention.

"Don't underestimate his ability to find new heights of assholedom," Vicky Delaney snarked back quietly, making Liz nearly choke as she swallowed another laugh.

Mr. Sommers shot their corner of the room a mild glare and continued. "For tonight's assignment, I've paired you together. It is your job as historians to find out as much as you can about your partner by asking these specific questions, and then writing up an oral history report for Wednesday."

Liz finally glanced down at the paper he'd handed out and frowned, hoping she got paired with one of their group who, oddly enough, all actually had this one class in common. Maria looked even less pleased and raised her hand. "Uh, excuse me, but these are kind of personal, don't you think? There are some people in this class I don't want to share a bathroom with, much less intimate details of my life."

The whole class laughed until Mr. Sommer's irritated hush quieted them all down. "Personal is the goal of the professional biographer, Miss Deluca, and who knows? You might just make a new friend," he stated with the barest hint of a smirk, making Liz reevaluate his intelligence, and evil factor. "Okay, so the partners are as follows: Daskal with Hausman, Kalinowski with Neil, L. Parker with Delaney, T. Parker with Nicholas, I. Evans with Whitman, M. Evans with Deluca, Valenti with Guerin, Papas with Cooney, Trussel with Wolf, Martinez with Peters, and Roy with Zavala."

Liz glanced back at Vicky and smiled hesitantly, relaxing slightly when the pretty blonde smiled back; clearly Isabel wasn't the only nice popular girl. Maria looked pleased with her assignment, as did Tess, but Michael and Kyle were exchanging not-quite-hostile glances, making her bite her lip as frustration, worry, and other emotions too tangled for her to identify churned in her stomach.

One way or another, this was not going to end well.

x

"So, Max, this should be fun, getting to know each other better," Maria said with a sugary smile, a smile that widened at his hesitant nod. "Well then, take a seat, I'll go get us some drinks and then we can get started! You like cherry coke, right?" She bustled off before he could answer and shot a wink at Tess, who was clearing her last table before joining Lyn in the back for their interviews. The blonde winked back and Maria hummed happily under her breath, an excuse to ask personal questions of the cutest boy in school? She might just have to rethink her Mr. Sommers is evil incarnate theory.

Filling two glasses, she returned to the table, sliding one across to Max and then handing him a bottle of Tabasco out of her apron with a coy smile. "Do you want to go first, or shall I?"

Max flushed faintly. "Uh, you can go first."

"Okay then, we'll start with an easy one. What's your favorite ice cream flavor?" Maria asked, folding her hands in front of her and leaning forward, wishing she'd invested in that water bra she saw at the store.

"Vanilla," he stated, seemingly relieved by the impersonal nature of the question. Maria gloated internally, _that's it, relax, we'll get to the interesting stuff soon enough._

"Simple and sweet, I like it," she said with a grin. "My favorite is rocky road; I just can't resist the frozen marshmallows." His smile warmed a bit and she fought the urge to wiggle happily in her seat. "So, onto the next one. Who's your favorite relative?"

He actually chuckled. "Isabel, of course, she'd make me regret it if I loved anyone else more."

"I don't know if that's creepy, or sweet," Maria replied dryly, earning herself another chuckle. "Mine is my mom, she's amazing, raised me all by herself after my loser dad skipped town." Her voice tightened ever so slightly on the last words, but she pushed down the old pain and smiled brighter, ignoring his concerned expression. "Here's another easy one, what's your favorite subject in school?

"English," he answered after a pause. "I guess I'm just a nerd at heart, I love to read." Cocking his head endearingly to the side, he smiled at her. "How about you? What about school does Maria Deluca like? Drama perhaps?"

She laughed, pleasantly surprised by him actually initiating a joke. Tess was so wrong, he wasn't boring, just shy. "You'd think, but I don't like being told how to act. Um, if I had to pick a favorite, I guess it would be French. It just sounds pretty." She shot him a wicked grin. "And they have lots of words for naughty things."

He choked on his soda, but grinned bashfully back at her after clearing his throat. "Um, that's great." He looked down at his paper, cheeks a little pink. "So, uh, what's your favorite TV show?"

"Dawson's Creek is my guilty pleasure, but you can't beat Buffy, even Alex doesn't complain when we watch that one."

He gave her a conspiratorial smile. "I think Isabel watches that one too, although she'd never admit it."

She grinned. Despite becoming friends with the icy blonde, she'd never turn down dirt on her, ways to catch a glimpse of the vulnerable girl she now knew lurked behind the goddess exterior. "So, what about you?"

He shrugged. "I don't really watch TV."

She raised an eyebrow at him, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "Well, we'll just have to fix that. We're supposed to be bonding as a group after all; you'll have to come to one of our movie and TV nights."

His smile was a little hesitant again, but he nodded, and Maria grinned smugly. Phase one complete.

x

"I'm so glad we're getting this chance to talk, Alex." Isabel said with a shark like smile and Alex winced, wondering exactly the beautiful blonde had in mind as a conversation topic.

"Uh yeah, me too. So, what's the next question?"

"What's your favorite movie, and I have a side question to add, why haven't you taken Raelyn to one yet? Or any other date-like activity?"

Alex nearly choked on his tongue, then blushed furiously, suddenly regretting agreeing to work on this at Isabel's house instead of the Crashdown as he realized that her stated reason of 'less distractions', had been code for, 'less witnesses'. "I, uh, I," he grit his teeth and the rest of his sentence tumbled out in an almost indecipherable rush, "I'mafraidshewon'tsayyes."

Her stern expression softened and she smiled almost fondly at him. "You idiot, she's so hopelessly crushing on you that I'm amazed you two get through a day without walking into walls because you're too busy staring at each other to pay attention to reality."

He gaped, then flushed again, hope rising in him that Liz and Tess hadn't been crazy when they told him the same thing. "Really?"

"Yes, really," she said dryly, rolling her eyes. "Now, let's finish this stupid assignment so we can move on to planning your first date."

Alex raised an eyebrow at her, summoning his backbone. "I think I can handle that much on my own."

She laughed and shook her head at him. "Maybe you could, but you're taking out my sister, so you're going to have to get used to me interfering sooner or later. Besides," she added with a smirk, "It'll be better if I plan it anyways."

He blinked at her before grinning reluctantly; she probably had a point, and if she was right, he would have plenty of time to plan dates for he and Lyn in the future. Instead of smiling back at him, that glint appeared in her eyes again and he leaned back warily. "Now, let's skip down a few questions; have you ever been in love?"

x

"I can't believe you and your sister can share this room without killing each other," Vicky said with a smile, glancing around the bedroom. "If my parents had made me and my older sister share a room, one of us would be in prison, and the other one would be in the ground."

Liz laughed, still slightly amazed that Vicky was so nice, and to her, given that the rumor mill had her going on a date with Kyle the weekend before. She thought it was in the manual that you were supposed to hate the ex's of anyone you were dating. "Yeah, we tried our own rooms once, after," she paused and shrugged when Vicky gave her a sympathetic smile, "But we just like sharing."

"Well I think that's awesome. It's hard enough to find girls worth being friends with, and you have one in the next bed over." Vicky grinned and glanced down at their history assignment. "And I bet she comes in handy dealing with any enemies you have."

Liz hid her internal flinch and smiled weakly. "I hope I don't have any enemies. What about you?"

Vicky shrugged carelessly. "Unless you count the soulless girls in the 'popular' club, then no, although my dad's new wannabe trophy wife isn't exactly fond of me."

"That sucks, I'm sorry," Liz murmured, shifting a little on the bed as she fought down the urge to squeeze the other girl's hand like she would for Tess or Maria.

"I'm not," Vicky said brightly. "It's fun pissing her off."

Liz couldn't help but join her in her laughter, the sound too genuinely amused to resist. "So, what's your greatest strength?" she finally asked, glancing down at her paper again.

"Besides annoying my stepmother? I can put together to die for outfits from the thrift store bargain bins, and every other girl in school thinks I only wear designer."

That surprised another laugh out of Liz. "You know, Vicky? You're kind of awesome."

Vicky grinned smugly, reminding Liz of Isabel, another unexpectedly awesome new friend. "I know. Now what's your greatest strength? And please don't say being perfect, because we all already know that," the other girl said with a wink.

Liz rolled her eyes. "If I could find whoever gave me that nickname in grade school, I'd slap them. If you want, Tess will make you a list of ways that I'm not perfect." The blonde chuckled. "As for my greatest strength, I think it's my family. What about your greatest weakness?"

"Iced coffee; I live for the day that Roswell gets a Starbucks," Vicky said fervently, a dreamy expression on her face. "Sugary, caffeinated goodness, you can't go wrong."

"Maybe I'll talk to dad about adding some coffee drinks to the menu," Liz said slyly, grinning when Vicky's eyes widened excitedly. "I think my greatest weakness is over thinking things."

"I never would have guessed," Vicky deadpanned. Liz stuck her tongue out at her and both girls laughed. "So, do you envy anyone?"

Liz shrugged and assumed a diplomatic tone. "Every person I meet has a quality I admire."

"Even Tommy Hoeig?" Vicky asked dryly, and Liz giggled. Mr. Sommers was definitely becoming one of her favorite teachers.

x

"With whom do you identify the most, living or dead?" Raelyn asked in her quiet voice and Tess tapped her pen against her lips.

"E.T? Seven of Nine? Leeloo?" she offered after a moment, lips quirking into a grin and earning a soft giggle from the other girl. "I like Phoebe, from Charmed too, but in real life, probably Liz; sometimes it feels like we share a brain."

Raelyn smiled. "That must be both nice, and difficult."

Tess nodded her agreement. "Not as difficult as your gift though, hearing Liz is one thing, but I would _not_ want to be stuck hearing or feeling anything from our classmates' inner psyches."

The redhead scrunched up her nose. "It's definitely not fun, but," she shrugged, "if I didn't have them, it would mean I didn't have Michael, or Isabel and Max, and even though Michael would tell me I was being ridiculously sappy, family makes everything worth it."

"While normally I'd agree with Michael on that sentiment, sometimes sappy is okay," Tess said with a grin. "And I'm going to assume Michael's your answer for that one, so, next question is: Do you have a sense of adventure? Do you like to take risks?"

"Our whole lives are one big adventure," Raelyn stated dryly. "But, unless they're necessary, no, I'm not a fan of taking risks."

"Ditto," Tess agreed with a grimace. "Sadly, they seem to be quite necessary in those adventurous lives of ours."

The other girl nodded with a rueful smile. "Well, let's talk about something more cheerful. What's your favorite book?"

"The Golden Book of Fairytales. Our Grandma Claudia gave it to me for my second Christmas here. I've gotten a new fairytale book every Christmas since then, but that one's still my favorite. What's yours?"

Raelyn flushed a little. "The Lord of the Rings, I know it's geeky, but I just love that he created so many complete languages and histories for the series; it's fascinating. Michael threatened to disown me if I actually learned the two elvish languages."

Tess grinned slyly. "No wonder you and Alex get along so well." The other girl blushed brighter, turning nearly as red as her hair, and Tess laughed, before sobering as she glanced back down at their assignment. "Okay then, let's move back to the depressing topics. What are you afraid of?"

The redhead smiled sadly. "The same thing you are, the same we all are afraid of – losing my family." Tess reached out and squeezed her hand, silently praying that none of them had to face that particular fear. Even in her fairytales, sometimes there wasn't a happy ending."

x

"These questions are so stupid," Kyle muttered, and Michael grunted in agreement, both boys eyeing each other warily at the hint of camaraderie. "Right, so, what's your favorite animal?"

"Rattlesnake," Michael drawled after a moment, smirking slightly as he remembered the day he brought the skin of one to show and tell, and spent the day being annoyed by a very chatty Kyle. "You still have an obsession with your dad's handcuffs?" he asked mockingly when he saw the glint of recollection in the other boy's eyes.

"Very funny, Guerin, I have no desire to play into whatever sick fantasies you might have," Kyle retorted, and Michael's smirk widened. "Let's just finish this stupid thing, we're almost done. My favorite is monkeys. Do you keep a journal of your life?"

The boys just looked at each other and snorted at the same time. "Do you think Mr. Sommers keeps a journal?" Michael asked as they both scribbled down no, frowning at the mildly disturbing thought.

"I think if he does, I don't want to know what's in it," Kyle snarked with an eye roll, before moving on to the next question. "Who knows you best in this world? Assuming anyone wants to get to know whatever's in that head of yours."

Michael glared at him mildly. "My sister. What about you? Who has the 411 on the Valenti psyche?"

Kyle glared back. "My father. Last question, Guerin, assuming it's one you can answer. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Michael actually had no idea how to answer that question, other than the honest answer of hoping he survived to grow up, and he certainly wasn't going to say the answer he'd gotten in his career profile, fireman or some other type of rescue worker, so he settled for sarcasm. "An Elvis impersonator in Vegas. What about you, Valenti, going to be a cop like your daddy?"

"Contrary to that Topolsky woman's belief, no, I have no desire to enter law enforcement. I'm going to be a professional athlete."

"Well, maybe I can sing at one of your games," Michael said with another smirk, and the other boy smirked back, before rolling his eyes again and rising to his feet.

"Nice chatting with you, Guerin, let's not do it again."

x

"So how did the interview with Vicky go?" Tess asked as she collapsed onto her bed, kicking her shoes beneath it and stretching her arms over her head.

Liz looked up from her desk where she'd been typing up the assignment and smiled. "It was actually really fun; I can see why Isabel likes her. How about you and Raelyn? Did you sing Alex's praises?"

Her sister laughed. "A couple times, but mostly we just talked, bonded over our crazy, overprotective siblings." Liz stuck her tongue out at her and Tess giggled again, before flinging herself back on her pillows. "I know it's stupid with Topolsky and the Sheriff and everything, but sometimes I feel like we can still have normal lives, you know?" She looked up and saw Liz's sad smile and agreeing nod. "Or, at least, semi-normal."

"I know. Part of me still hates everything we've learned, and of course that damn shooting, but it's kind of nice having the others to talk to, and I'm definitely glad Alex and Maria finally know." Liz pushed her notebook away and rose to her feet, stretching her arms above her head before sitting down on her own bed across from her sister. "How are you dealing with the other stuff? Talked to Max yet?"

Tess shook her head with a grimace. "No, and frankly I don't plan to. What's there to say? We were married in a past life neither of us remembers, he's clearly crushing on you, or was anyways, I think Maria's working on changing that, and I have no interest in him. Besides, Isabel's much more fun to hang out with, so I'm doing enough bonding with my former alien family."

Liz chuckled. "Fine, whatever you want, I still think you should talk to him thought. If only to prevent future awkwardness."

"At the expense of present awkwardness? I vote for postponing the awkward as long as humanly, or inhumanly, possible," Tess disagreed. "I'm going to take a shower; I'll try not to use all the hot water."

She vanished into the bathroom and Liz smiled, before sliding off the bed and climbing half under it to reach into her secret hidey hole; she pulled out two journals, one with the dreams, and another she'd started to document the powers of everyone in the group and the things they'd seen and felt in the cave, but the third, her personal thoughts and feelings, was missing.

_'Tess? Did you borrow my journal for some reason?' _she asked silently, knowing it was unlikely, but hoping all the same as dread began to curl its icy fingers into her gut.

_'No, why?'_

Liz felt nauseous. _'Because it's missing, and only someone with powers could have taken it.' _

_'Well, shit.'_

Liz half-laughed, half-choked, a near hysterical sound.

This was bad, so utterly bad. Someone, or something, had snuck into their room, and found the journals despite only two people in the world, including her, knowing where they were. She didn't understand why they hadn't taken the other two, but the one they had was bad enough, because she hadn't held anything back. Somewhere out there, someone was reading the intimate, and alien, details of their lives, and all they could do was pray that they didn't use that information to expose or kill them.


End file.
